BENJAMIN  PEIRCE. 


Judge  the  tree  by  its  frriit.  Is  this  magnificent  display  of  ideality  a  hitman 
delusion  ?  Or  is  it  a  divine  record?  77ie  heavens  and  the  earth  have  spoken 
to  declare  the  glory  of  God.  It  is  not  a  tale  told  by  an  idiot,  signifying'  nothing. 
It  is  the  poem  of  an  infinite  imagination,  signifying  immortality. 

BENJAMIN  PEIKCE. 


A    MEMORIAL    COLLECTION, 

BY   MOSES    KING, 
i  < 

CAMBRIDGE,         l88l.      MASSACHUSETTS. 


COPYRIGHT,  iSSi,  BY  MOSES  KING. 


Stereotyped  and  Printed 

By  Randy  Avery,  &*  Company, 

7/7  Franklin  Street, 

Boston. 


BEN    DELL'    INTELLETTO. 


WHENEVER  Good  of  Intellect  comes  in, 
Then  peace  is  with  us,  and  a  soft  control 
Of  all  harsh  thinking,  and  but  one  desire 

Fills  every  bosom,  —  to  forget  the  din  . 

Of  outside  things  and  render  up  the  soul 
To  friendship's  banquet  by  an  evening  fire : 
Then  is  the  season  in  this  world  of  sin 
That  brings  new  strength  and  keepeth  us  heart-whole 
Amid  the  changes  that  distress  and  tire ; 

And  when  from  wisdom  we  have  wanderers  been, 
So  that  a  stupor  on  the  spirit  stole 
From  things  tmknoum^-  with  visions  dark  and  dire, 
In  this  high  presence  we  restore  ourselves 
More  than  by  all  the  volumes  on  our  shelves. 

THOMAS  WILLIAM  PARSONS. 


1  "  E  stupor  m'eran  le  cose  non  conte."     Purgatorio,  xv.,  12. 


438280 

K 


CONTENTS. 


PORTRAIT  OF  BENJAMIN  PEIRCE 

Frontispiece. 

SONNET       

.     Thomas  William  Parsons,  A.M. 

3 

INTRODUCTION 

Moses  King   ....... 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

.     Thomas  Hill,  D.D.,  LL.D  

7 

NOTES  ON  LAST  ILLNESS,  DECEASE,  AND  FUNERAL        

12 

t  President  and  Fellows  oj  'Harvard  University, 

1  5 

RESOLUTIONS      .... 

<  Faculty  of  Harvard  College      .... 

15 

\.  American  Social  Science  Association 

1  6 

REPRINTS  FROM  PUBLICATIONS: 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser 

.     Editorial       

17 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser 

Obituary  Sketch  ....... 

10 

Boston  Evening  Transcript 

.     Editorial       

20 

Boston  Journal     . 

.     Editorial       
Editorial 

2  I 

Boston  Evening  Transcript 

.     George  Thiving.  —  A   Poem         .         .         . 

23 

Springfield  Republican 

.     Franklin  Benjamin  Sanborn,  A.B. 

25 

The  Nation  .... 

.     Editorial        

23 

Woman's  Journal 

.     Thomas  WentwortJt  Higginson,  A.M. 

30 

American  Journal  of  Science 

Leonard  Waldo,  S.D.           .         .         .         .  ' 

3* 

Nature  

.     Editorial       

34 

Journal  of  Social  Science    . 

.     Franklin  Benjamin  Sanborn,  A.B. 

35 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser 

.     Thomas  William  Parsons,  A.M.  —  A  Poem  . 

37 

ADDRESS     

James  Freeman  Clarke,  D.D.  .... 

39 

Andrew  Preston  Peabody,  D.D.,LL.D. 

4~ 

SERMON               .               . 

Thomas  Hill  D  D    LL  D 

48 

SERMON       

.     Cyrus  Aitgnstus  Bartol,D.D.  .... 

56 

POEM  

.     Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  M.D.,  LL.D.      . 

63 

INTRODUCTION. 


THIS  little  volume  is  no  biography  of  the  great  man  who  a  short 
time  ago  closed  an  active  career  of  almost  fifty  years  in  the  service, 
nominally  of  astronomy  and  mathematics  at  Harvard  University,  but 
practically  of  science  and  religion  throughout  the  world.  Its  contents 
but  feebly  reflect  the  life  of  one  who  ranks  among  the  few  men  whose 
names  have  been  imperishably  recorded  in  the  annals  of  science  and 
religion  in  this  century.  At  best  it  can  only  serve  as  a  convenient 
reference-book  for  the  future  biographer  of  the  late  professor. 

Although  having  neither  the  ability  to  appreciate  the  extraordinary 
intellect  of  Professor  Peirce,  nor  an  acquaintance  long  enough  to 
write  a  personal  narrative  of  his  life,  I  could  have  re-written  what 
had  already  appeared  in  print,  and  thus  have  issued  a  so-called  biog- 
raphy; but  it  seemed  best  simply  to  gather  in  permanent  and  con- 
venient form  such  printed  matter  as  was  occasioned  by  the  death  of 
Professor  Peirce,  correcting  such  errors  as  had  crept  in,  omitting,  as 
far  as  possible,  such  parts  as  were  repetitions,  and  adding  a  few  notes 
on  his  last  illness,  and  a  brief  account  of  the  funeral. 

My  acquaintance  with  Professor  Peirce  was  very  short,  yet  long 
enough  to  make  me  always  regard  him  as  one  of  my  kindest  friends. 
At  a  time  when  there  were  quite  different  opinions  among  the  officers 
of  the  University  as  to  the  propriety  of  my  issuing  T/w  Harvard 
Register,  he,  who  for  almost  half  a  century  had  devoted  himself  to  the 
institution,  unhesitatingly  came  forward  in  support  of  the  new  enter- 
prise. He  aided  it  pecuniarily,  offered  many  valuable  suggestions, 
indorsed  it  publicly,  and  promised  to  contribute  occasional  articles. 
To  him  I  am  indebted  for  the  last  piece  of  work  that  he  was  permitted 
to  write  for  publication.  It  was  his  article  on  "The  Intellectual 


Organization  of  Harvard  University."  Although  brief,  it  contains 
many  thoughts  that  will  remain  as  permanent  maxims.  It  gives  in  a 
convincing  manner  some  indisputably  correct  opinions  on  the  duties 
of  the  students,  instructors,  and  administrative  officers  of  a  true 
university. 

His  kindnesses  were  experienced  also  by  other  students ;  and, 
whatever  may  be  said  of  his  failure  to  be  instructive  to  those  who 
could  not  comprehend  his  teaching,  no  one  ever  complained  that  he 
was  severe  upon  those  who  failed  to  profit  by  it,  while  there  are  many 
to  give  hearty  praise  for  his  sympathy  with  them  in  their  difficulties 
with  their  college  work.  He  realized  that  a  student's  career  at  col- 
lege, especially  where  all  studies  are  prescribed,  is  not  necessarily  an 
infallible  sign  of  his  success  in  later  life,  and  kindly  interceded  with 
the  faculty  in  behalf  of  many  students  who  were  unable  to  master 
their  prescribed  work. 

It  is  therefore  chiefly  from  a  feeling  of  sincere  gratitude  to  one  of 
the  noblest  men  that  it  has  ever  been  my  lot  to  meet,  that  I  have 
issued  this  simple  compilation.  M.  K. 

CAMBRIDGE,  January,  1881. 


FROM    PLATO. 


ivl  &OIG 
vvv  6e  Oavuv  ha/un  ei?  "EaTrepoc  ev 


Peirce  1  among  living  men  thou  morning  star  ! 
Shin'st  Hesperus  now  where  souls  departed  are. 

OCT.  9,  1880.  T.  W.  PARSONS. 


BENJAMIN   PEIRCE. 

BY   EX-PRESIDENT    THOMAS    HILL,   D.D.,   LL.D. 

[From  The  Harvard  Register,  May,  1880.] 

No  name  has  shed  a  more  brilliant  lustre  over  the  academic  department 
of  Harvard  College,  during  the  last  thirty-five  years,  than  that  of  Benjamin 
Peirce,  of  the  class  of  1829.  He  was  born  at  Salem,  April  4,  1809;  was 
appointed  tutor  in  1831,  University  professor  of  mathematics  and  natural 
philosophy  in  1833,  Perkins  professor  of  astronomy  and  mathematics  in  1842. 
Tutor  Henry  Flynt  (1693)  ^s  ^e  only  person  ever  connected  with  the  College 
for  a  longer  period.  From  1836  to  1846  he  issued  a  series  of  text-books  on 
geometry,  trigonometry,  algebra,  and  "curves,  functions,  and  forces."  They 
were  so  full  of  novelties  that  they  never  became  widely  popular,  except,  per- 
haps, the  trigonometry ;  but  they  have  had  a  permanent  influence  upon  math- 
ematical teaching  in  this  country ;  most  of  their  novelties  have  now  become 
common-places  in  all  text-books.  The  introduction  of  infinitesimals  or  of 
limits  into  elementary  books ;  the  recognition  of  direction  as  a  fundamental 
idea ;  the  use  of  Hassler's  definition  of  a  sine  as  an  arithmetical  quotient, 
free  from  entangling  alliance  with  the  size  of  the  triangle  ;  the  similar  deliv- 
erance of  the  expression  of  derivative  functions  and  differential  co-efficients 
from  the  superfluous  introduction  of  infinitesimals ;  the  fearless  and  avowed 
introduction  of  new  axioms,  when  confinement  to  Euclid's  made  a  demon- 
stration long  and  tedious, —  in  one  or  two  of  these  points  European  writers 
moved  simultaneously  with  Peirce,  but  in  all  he  was  an  independent  inventor, 
and  nearly  all  are  now  generally  adopted. 

All  his  writings  are  characterized  by  singular  directness  and  conciseness, 
and  particularly  by  a  happy  choice  of  notation,  —  a  point  of  great  impor- 
tance to  the  mathematician,  lessening  not  only  his  mechanical  labor  in  writing, 
but  also  his  intellectual  labor  in  grasping  and  handling  the  difficult  concep- 
tions of  his  science. 

His  text-books  were,  also  complained  of  for  their  condensation,  as  being 
therefore  obscure  ;  but  under  competent  teachers  their  brevity  was  the  cause 
of  their  superior  lucidity.  In  the  Waltham  High  School  his  books  were 


used  for  many  years,  and  the  graduates  attained  thereby  a  clearer  and  more 
useful  applicable  knowledge  of  mathematics  than  was  given  at  any  other 
high  school  in  this  country  ;  nor  did  they  find  any  difficulty  in  mastering 
even  the  demonstration  of  Arbogast's  Polynomial  Theorem,  as  presented  by 
Peirce.  The  latter  half  of  the  volume  on  the  Integral  Calculus,  full  of 
marks  of  a  great  analytical  genius,  is  the  only  part  of  all  his  text-books 
really  too  difficult  for  students  of  average  ability. 

Gill's  Mathematical  Miscellany  contained  many  contributions  which  showed 
in  a  singular  light  the  Harvard  professor's  power.  For  example,  in  the 
issues  for  May  and  November,  1839,  he  solved,  by  a  system  of  co-ordinates 
of  his  own  devising,  several  problems  concerning  the  involutes  and  evolutes 
of  curves,  which  would  probably  have  proved  impregnable  by  any  other 
mode  of  approach. 

During  the  year  1842,  Professors  Peirce  and  Levering  published  a  "  Cam- 
bridge Miscellany  of  Mathematics  and  Physics,"  in  which  Peirce  gave  an 
analytical  solution  of  the  motion  of  a  top,  a  criticism  of  Espy's  theory  of 
storms,  etc.  About  tire  same  time  he  adapted  the  epicycles  of  Hipparchus 
to  the  analytical  forms  of  modern  science ;  and  the  method  was  used  by 
Lovering  in  meteorological  discussions  communicated  to  the  American 
Academy. 

The  comet  of  1843  gave  Professor  Peirce  the  opportunity  by  a  few  striking 
lectures  in  Boston  to  arouse  an  interest  which  led  to  the  foundation  of  the 
Observatory  at  Cambridge ;  and  by  his  discussions  of  the  orbit  with  Sears 
C.  Walker,  he  and  that  remarkable  computer  were  brought  to  mutual  ac- 
quaintance, and  prepared  for  the  still  more  important  services  to  astronomy 
which  they  rendered  after  the  discovery  of  Neptune.  This  planet  was  dis- 
covered in  September,  1846,  in  consequence  of  the  request  of  Leverrier  to 
Galle  that  he  should  search  the  zodiac  in  the  neighborhood  of  longitude  325° 
for  a  theoretical  cause  of  certain  perturbations  of  Uranus.  But  Peirce 
showed  that  the  discovery  was  a  happy  accident ;  not, that  Leverrier's  calcu- 
lations had  not  been  exact,  and  wonderfully  laborious,  and  deserving  of  the 
highest  honor ;  but  because  there  were,  in  fact,  two  very  different  solutions 
of  the  perturbations  of  Uranus  possible  :  Leverrier  had  correctly  calculated 
one,  but  the  actual  planet  in  the  sky  solved  the  other ;  and  the  actual  planet 
and  Leverrier's  ideal  one  lay  in  the  same  direction  from  the  earth  only  in 
1846.  Peirce's  labors  upon  this  problem,  while  showing  him  to  be  the  peer 
of  any  astronomer,  were  in  no  way  directed  against  Leverrier's  fame  as  a 
mathematician  :  on  the  contrary,  he  testified  in  the  strongest  manner  that  he 


had  examined  and  verified  Leverrier's  labors  sufficiently  to  establish  their 
marvellous  accuracy  and  minuteness,  as  well  as  their  herculean  amount. 

A  few  years  later,  1851  to  1855,  Peirce  published  the  remarkable  results  of 
his  labors  upon  Saturn's  rings.  Professor  G.  P.  Bond  had  seen  the  ring 
divide  itself  and  re-unite,  and  had  thereby  been  led  to  show  by  computation 
from  Laplace's  formula:  that  the  ring  could  not  be  solid.  Upon  this  Peirce 
investigated  the  problem  anew,  and  showed  that  the  ring,  if  fluid,  could  not 
be  sustained  by  the  planet ;  that  satellites  could  not  sustain  a  solid  ring,  but 
that  sufficiently  large  and  numerous  satellites  could  sustain  a  fluid  ring,  and 
that  the  actual  satellites  of  Saturn  are  sufficient. 

Jn  1849  he  was  appointed  consulting  astronomer  to  the  American  Epheme- 
ris  and  Nautical  Almanac,  and  rendered  efficient  service  in  bringing  that 
publication  to  its  condition  of  honorable  authority;  particularly  in  the  lunar 
tables  which  he  furnished,  in  his  treatment  of  Neptune,  and  various  methods 
of  computation.  He  also  assisted  Professor  Bache  in  the  Coast  Survey,  and 
was,  for  many  years,  of  great  service  in  that  important  national  work,  before 
he  was  himself  appointed  superintendent  in  1867.  His  calculations  of  the 
occultations  of  the  Pleiades  were  very  laborious  and  exact,  and  furnished  an 
accurate  means  of  studying  the  form,  both  of  the  earth  and  her  satellite ;  his 
criterion  for  rejecting  doubtful  observations  is  an  ingenious  and  valuable  ex- 
tension of  the  law  of  probabilities  to  its  own  correction;  his  detection  of  the 
mental  error  of  lurking  personal  preferences  for  individual  digits  is  a  curious 
specimen  of  that  acuteness  of  observation  which  characterizes  his  own  mind. 

He  held  the  office  of  superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey  from  1867  to 
1874.  Coming  after  such  able  men  as  Hassler  and  Bache  to  an  office  which 
required  not  only  familiarity  with  mathematics  and  physics,  but  also  great 
knowledge  of  men  and  executive  ability,  he  was  not  found  wanting,  but 
showed  that  the  theory  of  the  Stoics  will  sometimes  hold  good  to-day,  —  the 
really  great  man  shows  himself  great  by  any  and  every  standard.  The  Coast 
Survey  has,  since  the  year  1845,  steadily  advanced  in  public  favor ;  and  its 
work  commands  the  highest  respect  among  all  men  competent  to  judge 
throughout  the  world,  as  being  not  only  of  direct  service  to  the  nation,  but 
as  making  constant  valuable  additions  to  science. 

Many  monographs,  bearing  the  marks  of  Peirce's  individuality  and  pecul- 
iar power,  have  been  read  by  him  before  various  academies,  societies,  and 
institutions;  but  only  the  results  of  most  of  them  have  ever  been  furnished 
for  publication.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  an  investigation  of  the 
forms  of  stable  equilibrium  for  a  fluid  in  an  extensible  sack  floating  in  anoth- 


er  fluid,  being  an  a  priori  embryology.  Also,  the  motions  of  a  billiard-ball, 
an  instance  in  nature  of  discontinuity,  when  the  ball  leaves  its  curve,  and 
goes  on  a  tangent ;  another,  the  motion  of  a  sling,  curious  from  the  immense 
variety  of  forms  comprised  under  exceedingly  simple  uniform  conditions. 

In  1857  he  published  a  volume  summing  up  the  most  valuable  and  most 
brilliant  results  of  analytical  mechanics,  interspersing  them  with  original 
results  of  his  own  labor.  A  year  or  two  later  an  American  student  in  Ger- 
many asked  one  of  the  most  eminent  professors  there,  what  books  he  would 
recommend  on  analytical  mechanics  :  the  answer  was  instantaneous,  "  There 
is  nothing  fresher  and  nothing  more  valuable  than  your  own  Peirce's  recent 
quarto."  In  this  volume  occurs  a  singular  instance  of  a  characteristic  which 
I  have  already  mentioned.  Peirce  assumes  as  self-evident  that  a  line  which 
is  wholly  contained  upon  a  limited  surface,  but  which  has  neither  beginning 
nor  end  on  that  surface,  must  be  a  curve  re-entering  upon  itself.  By  means 
of  this  hyper-Euclidean  axiom  he  reduces  a  demonstration  which  would 
otherwise  occupy  half  a  dozen  pages  to  a  dozen  lines. 

In  1870,  through  the  ''labors  of  love"  of  persons  engaged  on  the  Coast 
Survey,  an  edition  of  a  hundred  lithographed  copies  was  published,  of  certain 
communications  to  the  "National  Academy"  upon  "Linear  Associative 
Algebra."  In  1852  Hamilton  of  Dublin  had  published  his  wonderful  volume 
on  Quaternions ;  and  this  had  been  followed  by  various  other  attempts  to 
create  an  algebra  more  useful  in  geometrical  and  physical  research  than  the 
co-ordinates  of  Descartes.  Ordinary  algebra  deals  only  with  quantitative 
relations;  and  the  object  of  the  Arithmetic  of  Lines,  and  of  Cartesian 
co-ordinates,  had  been  to  reduce  distances  and  directions  to  a  comparison  of 
quantity.  But  Hamilton  introduced  quality  also  ;  and  his  algebra  employed 
the  dimensions  of  space,  unchanged  and  essentially  diverse,  in  computation. 
His  imitators  and  followers  had  not  succeeded  in  improving,  or  in  really 
adding  to,  his  methods.  But  Peirce,  in  these  communications  to  the  Acade- 
my, attacks  the  problem,  according  to  his  wont,  with  astonishing  breadth 
of  view,  and  boldness  of  plan.  He  begins  with  a  definition  of  mathematics, 
shows  the  variety  of  processes  included  in  his  definition,  passes  then  to  its 
symbols,  shows  the  nature  of  qualitative  and  of  quantitative  algebras,  and  of 
those  which  combine  the  two,  and  says  he  will  investigate  the  general  sub- 
ject of  algebra.  First,  he  limits  himself  in  this  volume  to  algebras  handling 
less  than  seven  distinct  qualities ;  that  is,  not  exceeding  six.  The  notation 
is  then  discussed,  and  the  necessary  enlargements  and  modifications  of  the 
algebraic  signs  and  symbols  are  clearly  denned.  The  distributive  and  asso- 


ciative  principles  in  multiplication  are  adopted,  but  not  the  commutative : 
and  he  confines  himself  to  linear  algebras ;  that  is,  to  those  in  which  every 
expression  is  reducible  to  an  algebraic  sum  of  terms  each  expressive  of  a 
single  quality.  After  a  full  discussion  of  the  general  results  which  must  be 
found  in  all  algebras  under  these  conditions,  he  begins  with  single  algebras, 
then  double,  then  triple,  and  so  on  up  to  sextuple,  making  nearly  a  hundred 
algebras  which  he  shows  to  be  possible,  and  of  which  he  gives  the  great  fea- 
tures. There  are  almost  no  comments  upon  them  ;  and  it  is  only  by  a  patient 
examination  for  himself  that  the  reader  discovers,  that,  of  all  these  numer 
ous  algebras,  only  three  have  ever  been  heard  of  before.  First,  of  the  two 
single  algebras  we  have  one,  which  is  the  common  algebra,  including  its  sim- 
pler form  of  arithmetic.  Secondly,  of  the  three  double  algebras  we  have 
one,  viz.,  the  Calculus  of  Leibnitz  and  Newton.  Thirdly,  of  over  twenty 
quadruple  algebras,  only  one  has  been  used,  the  Quaternions  of  Hamilton. 
Such  is  a  brief  abstract  of  this  book  of  marvellous  prophecy.  The  most  note- 
worthy things  which  he  has  done  since  its  publication  are  a  course  of  Lowell 
lectures,  given  about  a  year  ago,  on  "  Ideality  in  Science,"  and  a  series  of 
communications  to  the  American  Academy,  which,  it  is  understood,  is  still 
to  be  continued.  In  the  Lowell  lectures  he  embodies  many  of  his  views  on 
philosophy  and  religion  which  are  peculiarly  dear  to  him,  and  are  always  lis- 
tened to  with  profound  interest,  even  by  those  of  less  religious  nature.  In 
the  communications  to  the  Academy  he  is  discussing,  with  all  his  wonted 
power,  questions  of  cosmical  physics,  and  particularly  theories  concerning 
the  source  and  supply  of  the  sun's  heat. 

While  Professor  Peirce  has  the  tenacity  of  grasp,  and  power  of  endurance, 
which  enable  him  to  make  the  most  intricate  and  tedious  numerical  compu- 
tations, he  is  still  more  distinguished  by  intensity  and  fervor  of  action  in 
every  part  of  his  nature,  an  enthusiasm  for  whatever  is  noble  and  beautiful 
in  the  world  or  in  art,  in  fiction  or  real  life ;  an  exalted  moral  strength  and 
purity ;  a  glowing  imagination  which  soars  into  the  seventh  heavens  ;  an  in- 
sight and  a  keenness  of  external  observation  which  makes  the  atom  as  grand 
to  him  as  a  planet ;  a  depth  of  reverence  which  exalts  him  while  he  abases 
himself. 


NOTE. 


AT  the  time  the  foregoing  excellent  sketch  was  written,  Professor 
Peirce  seemed  to  be  unusually  well.  For  several  years  the  state  of 
his  health  had  occasionally  caused  his  friends  some  anxiety,  but  they 
now  thought  that  it  was  well  established  again.  The  time  had  by  no 
means  come  when  those  who  knew  him,  either  in  his  public  or  his 
private  life,  could  find  reason  to  feel  that  he  had  begun  to  approach 
the  end  of  this  world's  usefulness  or  enjoyment.  He  was  still  in  the 
fulness  of  his  faculties,  of  his  judgment,  of  his  interests,  and  of  his 
affections  ;  and  seemed  to  be  entering  on  a  new  period  of  vigorous, 
fresh,  and  serene  life.  During  the  winter  of  1879-80  and  the  ensuing 
spring,  he  was  active  in  many  directions.  He  was  the  chief  mover  in 
a  series  of  weekly  scientific  meetings  among  the  corps  of  the  Univer- 
sity, in  which  he  not  only  sought  to  stimulate  a  searching  discussion 
of  the  questions  of  cosmical  physics  he  was  himself  enthusiastically 
studying,  but  warmly  welcomed  the  topics  which  others  brought  for- 
ward, with  the  unfailing  interest  he  always  showed  in  every  true  line 
of  investigation.  With  the  assistance  of  a  favorite  pupil,  he  resumed 
but  too  earnestly  (for  the  zest  with  which  he  threw  himself  into  this 
work  brought  on  his  first  attack)  the  study  of  the  comet  of  1843,  and 
undertook  the  complete  inquiry  into  all  its  successive  appearances 
from  the  beginning  of  astronomical  records,  incited  thereto  by  hearing 
of  the  remarkable  observation,  strongly  recalling  that  comet,  made  in 
South  America  by  his  friend  Dr.  Benjamin  Apthorp  Gould.  He  was 
still  deeply  interested  in  his  work  of  teaching,  and  had  announced  an 
important  new  course  on  cosmical  physics  for  the  current  year ;  and 
his  teaching,  whatever  its  defects  in  the  view  of  the  mere  pedagogue, 
and  even  from  a  higher  standpoint,  had  in  it  elements  of  originality, 


of  power,  of  rapid  vigor,  of  profundity,  of  intrinsic  clearness  (some- 
times marred,  it  is  true,  by  superficial  obscurity),  of  unfaltering  free- 
dom, and  of  life,  which  no  instruction,  proceeding  from  less  remarka- 
ble intellect  or  learning,  could  approach.  In  his  prime  he  was  the 
centre  of  an  influence  which  went  to  the  starting  of  many  a  since  dis- 
tinguished scientific  career ;  and  he  was  happy  in  having,  to  the  last, 
pupils  who  understood  the  greatness  of  his  teaching,  and  appreciated 
and  loved  his  character. 

While  he  thus  seemed  to  be  renewing  his  scientific  activity,  his 
interest  in  literature,  art,  and  society,  appeared  also  greater  than  ever. 
He  repeated  his  Lowell  Lectures  in  Baltimore,  and  one  of  them  in 
New  York,  and  heartily  enjoyed  both  the  social  pleasures  of  his  visit, 
and  the  interest  he  was  able  to  awake.  He  entered,  with  delightful 
freshness,  into  the  enjoyment  of  the  exquisite  presentations  of  Shak- 
speare's  heroines  which  adorned  our  stage  last  spring,  and  of  the 
noble  and  deeply  imagined  characterizations  of  the  great  actor  who 
followed  ;  in  honor  of  whom,  and  of  that  musician  of  delicate  per- 
ceptions and  fascinating  presence  whose  life  has  since  closed,  his 
last  hospitality  was  offered.  He  was  eager  to  let  no  opportunity  go 
by  of  rendering  a  service  or  a  gratification  to  a  friend  ;  and  he  took 
every  occasion  of  reviving  with  cordiality  friendships  and  associations 
of  long-past  days.  But  it  is  not  unlikely  that  this  increased  activity 
was  but  a  pressing  forward,  enforced  by  a  presentiment  of  the  short- 
ness of  the  time,  and  that  all  the  while  he  was  himself  looking  with 
steady  eye  to  the  approaching  end. 

In.  May  Professor  Peirce  began  to  pass  under  the  shadow  of  the 
cloud  of  his  last  illness.  For  some  weeks  there  was  little  serious  fear 
that  it  was  a  shadow  not  destined  to  lift.  He  was  first  confined  to  his 
chamber  on  the  25111  of  June  ;  and  from  that  time  his  slowly  failing 
condition  was  hardly  relieved  even  by  any  deceptive  appearances 
of  improvement.  He  died  on  the  morning  of  Wednesday,  Oct.  6. 
Distinguished  throughout  his  life  by  his  freedom  from  the  usual  ab- 
horrence of  death,  which  he  never  permitted  himself  either  to  mourn 
when  it  came  to  others,  or  to  dread  for  himself,  he  kept  this  character- 
istic temper  to  the  end,  through  all  the  sad  changes  of  his  trying  ill- 


ness;  and,  two  days  before  he  ceased  to  breathe,  it  struggled  into 
utterance  in  a  few  faintly-whispered  words,  which  expressed  and  ear- 
nestly inculcated  a  cheerful  and  complete  acceptance  of  the  will  of 
God  with  regard  to  him. 

The  funeral  took  place  on  Saturday,  Oct.  9,  at  Appleton  Chapel, 
and  was  the  occasion  of  an  impressive  gathering  of  people  of  great 
and  various  mark.  The  attendance  included  a  very  full  representa- 
ion  of  the  various  faculties  and  governing  boards  of  the  University; 
a  large  deputation  of  officers  of  the  United-States  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  headed  by  the  superintendent  and  the  chief  assistant ;  dele- 
gations of  eminent  professors  from  Yale  College  and  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University ;  many  members  of  the  class  of  1829 ;  and  a  great 
number  of  other  friends  of  the  deceased.  The  pall-bearers  were  :  — 


President  Charles  W.  Eliot. 

Ex-President  Thomas  Hill,  Pastor  of  the  First 
Parish  Church,  Portland,  Me. 

Capt.  C.  P.  Patterson,  Superintendent  of  the 
United-States  Coast  Survey. 

Professor  J.  J.  Sylvester,  of  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University. 


Hon.  J.  Ingersoll  Bowditch. 

Professor  Simon  Newcomb,  Superintendent 
of  the  American  Ephemeris  and  Nauti- 
cal Almanac. 

Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

Professor  Joseph  Levering. 

Dr.  Morrill  Wyman. 


A  beautiful  and  simple  service  was  conducted  by  the  Rev.  A.  P. 
Peabody  and  the  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke ;  nor  could  any  thing 
be  more  congenial  to  the  sentiments  of  those  who  were  familiar  with 
Professor  Peirce's  own  character  and  tastes  than  the  expression  that 
was  given  in  music,  and  which  nothing  but  music  could  so  fully  give, 
to  the  feeling  of  the  hour,  through  the  chant  and  the  organ,  and  by 
one  moving  voice,  inspired  by  memories  of  affectionate  interest  and 
genial  sympathy  and  admiration  to  its  noblest  utterance. 

It  was  a  day  brimming  with  the  sweet  magnificence  of  autumn,  — 
its  generous  and  tender  gladness  in  truest  harmony  with  the  bright, 
rich,  and  ever-youthful  nature  of  him  whose  image  filled  so  many 
hearts.  X.  Y.  Z. 


RESOLUTIONS. 

ACTION    OF    THE    PRESIDENT   AND    FELLOWS. 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College, 
Oct.  n,  1880,  the  following  entry  was  made  upon  the  record  :  — 

"The  President  and  Fellows  desire  to  express  their  deep  regret  at  the 
death  of  Benjamin  Peirce,  Perkins  Professor  of  Astronomy  and  Mathemat- 
ics, on  the  6th  inst.,  in  the  seventy-second  year  of  his  age,  and  the  fiftieth 
of  his  service  as  a  College  teacher. 

"The  University  must  long  lament  the  loss  of  an  intelligence  so  rare,  an 
experience  so  rich,  and  a  personal  influence  so  strong,  as  his. 

"As  a  teacher,  he  inspired  young  minds  with  a  love  of  truth,  and  touched 
them  with  his  own  enthusiasm  ;  as  a  man  of  science,  his  attainments  and 
achievements  and  his  public  services  have  reflected  honor  upon  the  Univer- 
sity and  the  country." 


ACTION  OF  THE  FACULTY  OF  HARVARD  COLLEGE. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Faculty  held  Nov.  15,  1880,  it  was  voted  to 
enter  the  following  on  the  Faculty  Records  :  — 

"The  Faculty  of  Harvard  College  desire  to  put  on  record  their  sense  of 
the  loss  which  they,  individually  and  collectively,  have  sustained  in  the  death 
of  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  service  as  a  teacher 
and  as  a  member  of  this  body. 

"Gifted  with  an  extraordinary  intuition  in  his  favorite  science,  he  was 
eager  to  lead  where  few  were  able  to  follow  ;  but  all  felt  the  inspiration  of 
his  profound  thought  and  earnest  utterance.  With  full  consciousness  of  his 
own  powers,  he  over-estimated  the  abilities  of  others.  Those  who  came  into 
intimate  contact  with  him  were  attracted  by  the  simplicity  of  his  nature  and 


elevated  by  the  nobility  of  his  mind.  His  more  public  services  to  science 
and  to  the  country  have  given  him  a  wider  reputation  than  belongs  to  the 
teacher  ;  but  the  College  has  a  portion  in  the  heritage  of  all  her  illustrious 


ACTION    OF    THE    AMERICAN    SOCIAL    SCIENCE 
ASSOCIATION. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  American  Social 
Science  Association,  held  at  Boston,  Oct.  27,  1880,  President  Way- 
land  in  the  chair,  the  following  resolutions  were  adopted,  and  entered 
on  the  records  of  the  Association:  — 

Resolved,  That  the  American  Social  Science  Association,  in  the  death  of 
Professor  Peirce,  mourns  the  loss  of  a  distinguished  member,  who  added  to 
those  special  gifts  and  attainments  by  which  he  was  known  to  the  world,  a 
broad  interest  in  all  forms  of  human  knowledge,  and  all  subjects  of  scientific 
research,  which  made  him  in  a  peculiar  manner  the  representative  of  social 
science  among  those  whose  function  was  education  and  the  general  culture 
of  mankind.  Coming  to  our  main  work  late  in  life,  and  impelled  by  his  sym- 
pathy with  all  the  forward  movements  of  human  intelligence,  he  brought  with 
him  and  imparted  to  others  that  deep  religious  enthusiasm  which  is  so  essen- 
tial in  these  universal  studies,  and  which  gives  to  the  matured  wisdom  of  age 
its  most  attractive  aspect. 

Resolved,  That  the  official  service  of  Professor  Peirce,  in  guiding  and  carry- 
ing forward  the  educational  work  of  this  Association,  has  been  seasonable  and 
important ;  and  that  his  death  leaves  vacant  a  place  in  its  councils  which  we 
shall  vainly  seek  to  fill ;  while  his  example  remains  in  memory,. a  cordial  en- 
couragement to  youth,  and  a  steady  light  for  the  experience  of  age. 


16 


REPRINTS     FROM     PUBLICATIONS. 


FROM    THE    BOSTON   DAILY  ADVERTISER,   OCT.   7. 

AN  editorial  notice  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  on  the  morning 
of  Oct.  7,  said,  — 

"The  death  of  Professor  Benjamin  Peirce  is  a  great  and  national  loss ;  for 
he  was  the  Nestor  of  American  mathematicians,  and  the  historic  transition 
from  the  illustrious  Nathaniel  Bowditch  to  the  present  generation  of  mathe- 
matical minds.  And  among  these  the  son  of  the  deceased,  Mr.  Charles 
Sanders  Peirce,  is  not  so  much  the  rising  hope  as  he  is  the  worthy  heir  of 
great  traditions.  If  Newton  and  Gauss  are  the  greatest  of  modern  mathe- 
maticians, the  late  Professor  Peirce's  merits  will  rank  with  the  marvellous 
achievements  of  the  Bernoullis,  Euler,  and  Laplace.  For  not  only  has  he 
extended  the  field  of  mathematics,  he  has  also  re-surveyed  the  larger  part  of 
the  field,  and  by  the  introduction  of  new  methods  enabled  his  successors  to 
cover  more  ground  in  less  time  than  was  previously  possible.  This  is  shown, 
even  in  his  elementary  treatises,  in  his  treatise  on  analytical  mechanics  of 
1857,  and  in  his  'Linear  Associative  Algebra'  of  1870.  Had  he  chosen  to 
publish  a  selected  edition  of  his  mathematical  works  satisfactory  to  himself, 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  for  centuries  to  come  the  world  would  not 
willingly  let  them  die.  The  layman's  impression,  that  a  science  as  precise 
and  formal  as  mathematics  is  necessarily  dry  and  abstract,  is  not  borne  out 
by  Professor  Peirce's  works  and  his  personal  character.  Both  were  to  a 
remarkable  degree  imaginative,  speculative,  and  emotional.  Both  were  filled 
with  that  reverence  which  is  the  almost  uniform  result  of  having  felt  the 
living  pulse  of  everlasting  truths.  Nor  has  Professor  Peirce's  life  been 
spent  in  learned  retirement.  lie  was  among  the  teachers  at  Round  Hill ; 
since  1831  he  has  been  one  of  the  bright,  particular  stars  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege ;  the  Harvard  Observatory  was  founded  through  his  help  ;  he  was  next 
to  Bache  the  strongest  man  connected  with  the  United-States  Coast  Survey ; 
he  helped  in  making  the  American  Ephemeris  an  authority  rarely  challenged  ; 


he  contributed  to  the  transactions  of  the  National  Academy,  the  American 
Academy,  and  other  learned  societies ;  and  he  was  of  value  wheresoever  he 
chose  to  mingle  with  his  fellow-citizens.  For  as  was  his  science,  true  and 
pure,  so  was  the  man." 


In  the  news  department  of  the  same  paper  appeared  an  obituary 
sketch  of  Professor  Peirce.  The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  it, 
a  few  slight  corrections  having  been  made :  — 

BENJAMIN  PEIRCE  was  the  third  of  the  four  children  of  Benjamin  Peirce 
and  his  wife,  a  sister  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nichols  of  Portland.  The  elder 
Mr.  Peirce  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1801,  receiving  the  highest  honors  of  his 
class,  and  from  1826  to  1831  he  was  the  college  librarian:  he  wrote  also  the 
history  of  the  College  from  1639  to  the  beginning  of  the  American  Revolution. 
Mr.  Benjamin  Peirce  the  younger  graduated  from  Harvard  with  George  T. 
Bigelow,  W.  H.  Channing,  B.  R.  Curtis,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and  James 
Freeman  Clarke,  in  the  class  of  1829.  While  an  undergraduate  he  was  a 
pupil  of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  who  made  the  prediction  that  young  Peirce 
would  become  one  of  the  leading  mathematicians  of  this  century.  After 
having  taught  two  years  at  Round  Hill,  Northampton,  he  was  appointed  in 
1831,  at  the  same  time  with  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody,  tutor  in  mathematics  at  Har- 
vard, and  ever  since  has  been  actively  connected  with  the  College.  He  be- 
came University  professor  of  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy  in  1833, 
and  was  appointed  to  his  present  position,  Perkins  professor  of  mathematics 
and  •  astronomy,  in  1842.  From  1833  to  1846  he  issued  a  series  of  school- 
books  on  geometry,  algebra,  and  "Curves,  Functions,  and  Forces,"  which  have 
had  a  lasting  effect  upon  the  methods  of  teaching  in  this  country.  The 
author  acted  independently  in  the  introduction  of  infinitesimals  into  element- 
ary books,  and  supplanted  many  traditional  methods  in  mathematics  by 
concise  and  axiomatic  definitions  and  demonstrations  of  his  own  invention. 
He  surpassed  other  mathematicians  particularly  in  the  choice  of  notation, 
which  enabled  his  mind  to  carry  its  power  of  abstract  reasoning  to  a  higher 
degree  by  reducing  mental  lab'or.  All  his  writings  contain  novelties  which 
bear  the  stamp  of  a  powerful  individuality.  A  curious  instance  of  this  is 
his  discovery  of  a  lurking  preference  in  the  mind  for  particular  fractions  that 
occur  in  computation,  and  his  adoption  of  a  means  of  avoiding  the  error 
naturally  resulting  from  such  preference.  Another  remarkable,  instance  of 


18 


his  acute  perception  is  his  criterion  for  rejecting  discordant  observations. 
Here,  too,  he  found  the  mind  was  liable  to  be  influenced  by  an  unconscious 
preference,  and  so  made  his  selection  from  the  several  observations  by  a  new 
application  of  the  mathematical  law  of  probability.  .  .  . 

In  1852  were  printed  Peirce's  lunar  tables,  to  be  used  in  making  computa- 
tions for  the  Nautical  Almanac,  with  which  publication  Professor  Peirce  was 
long  connected  as  consulting  astronomer.  Though  intended  to  serve  only  a 
temporary  purpose,  till  the  long-expected  tables  of  Hansen  should  make 
their  appearance,  these  tables  have  ever  since  been  retained  in  use  as  giving 
results  quite  as  accurate  as  are  obtained  by  the  aid  of  Hansen's  computa- 
tions. From  1852  to  1856  Professor  Peirce  made  a  laborious  investigation 
into  the  nature  of  Saturn's  rings,  and  demonstrated  that  they  are  not  solid, 
but  fluid,  sustained  by  the  planet's  satellites.  In  j^jfappeared  "  A  System 
of  Analytic  Mechanics,"  consolidating  "the  latest  researches  of  the  great 
geometers  and  their  most  exalted  forms  of  thought,"  but  containing  brilliant 
results  of  the  author's  own  labor.  From  1867  to  1874  he  was  superintendent 
of  the  United-States  Coast  Survey;  and  in  1870,  with  the  help  of  his  asso- 
ciates, there  was  published  an  edition  of  one  hundred  copies  of  certain  papers 
communicated  to  the  National  Academy  upon  "Linear  Associative  Algebra." 
This  work  is  an  examination  and  enlargement  of  the  new  mathematical 
science  of  quaternions.  This  science,  in  which  distances  and  directions  are 
measured,  not,  as  in  ordinary  algebra,  by  quantity,  but  by  units  of  quality  as 
well,  was  developed  by  Hamilton  in  1852,  and  is  considered  a  most  remarkable 
achievement.  Professor  Peirce  first  explains  the  nature  of  qualitative  and 
quantitative  algebras,  and  then  shows  that  there  may  be  a  score  or  more  of 
algebras  of  distinct  qualitative  units.  Among  the  important  original  re- 
sults of  his  labor  is  a  determination  of  the  forms  of  equilibrium  for  a  fluid 
ir.  an  extensible  sack  in  another  fluid,  and  a  theory  of  comets'  tails.  For  the 
past  ten  years  of  his  life  he  published  less.  He  withdrew  more  and  more 
from  active  work  in  the  College,  leaving  his  son,  Professor  James  Mills 
Peirce,  to  take  his  place  in  the  class-room,  while  he  gave  himself  up  to  the 
enjoyment  of  the  philosophic  and  religious  beliefs  which  hi*  lifelong  pursuit 
of  science  had  unfolded  and  made  dear  to  him.  .  .  . 

At  the  time  of  the  publication  of  his  "  System  of  Analytic  Mechanics," 
Professor  Peirce  announced  that  the  volume  would  be  followed  by  three 
others,  entitled  respectively,  "Celestial  Mechanics,"  "  Potential  Physics,"  and 
"Analytic  Morphology."  In  them  would  have  been  expected  some  reference 
to  theology,  but  they  were  never  published.  In  his  recent  lectures  on  "  Ideal- 


ity  in  Science,"  however,  are  embodied  many  of  his  views  on  philosophy  and 
religion  ;  and  even  in  such  a  purely  technical  work  as  the  Analytic  Me- 
chanics crop  out  references  to  spiritual  things.  He  has,  says  ex-President 
Hill,  "too  much  intellectual  honesty  to  conceal  any  of  his  views."  Starting 
with  the  idea  that  force  resides  in  the  will,  he  concludes,  through  the  con- 
sciousness of  freedom  and  efficiency  in  himself,  that  motion  is  a  manifestation 
of  force  ;  and  the  conception  of  force  outside  of  himself  leads  him  to  a 
belief  in  an  all-powerful  and  conscious  will  which  is  the  seat  of  that  force. 
"  Every  portion  of  the  material  universe,"  writes  Professor  Peirce,  "is  per- 
vaded by  the  same  laws  of  mechanical  action  which  are  incorporated  into  the 
very  constitution  of  the  human  mind."  The  universe,  then,  was  made  for 
the  instruction  of  man.  With  this  belief  he  approached  the  study  of  natural 
phenomena  not  in  the  spirit  of  a  critic,  but  reverently  in  the  mood  of  a  sym- 
pathizing reader;  and  the  lesson  he  reads  is,  "There  is  but  one  God,  and 
science  is  the  knowledge  of  Him."  .  .  . 


FROM    THE    BOSTON    EVENING    TRANSCRIPT,    OCT.    7. 

PROFESSOR  PEIRCE  was  a  scientific  man  who  had  that  noblest  and  most 
valuable  and  productive  of  gifts,  the  scientific  imagination.  Learning  did  not 
choke  up,  but  watered,  the  springs  of  original  thought  in  him.  No  surer 
mark  of  rare  genius  can  be  named.  Mathematics  were  employed  by  him  to 
clarify  the  profoundest  delvings  into  the  mysteries  of  mind  and  the  most 
exalted  speculations  upon  religious  beliefs.  He  could  grasp  instantly  and 
hold  firmly  the  most  general  conception  of  every  thing  and  any  thing ;  and 
his  mind  was  of  that  genial,  fervid  kind,  that  is  open  and  impressible  on  all 
sides,  and  did  open  with  pleased  wonder  and  curiosity  to  every  thing  in 
nature,  art,  and  society,  as  well  as  science.  His  lectures  here  last  winter  on 
"  Ideality  in  Science  "  displayed  well  the  highest  and  noblest  characteristics 
of  his  mind ;  and  it  is  pleasant  to  remember  that  he  saw  and  knew  that  they 
were  appreciated.  His  active  service  in  the  University  and  in  his  chosen 
field  of  science  was  finished ;  but  the  influence  of  his  presence  was  some- 
thing that  will  be  missed,  and  leave  a  void  not  to  be  filled.  Long  may  it  be 
ere  the  same  must  be  said  of  the  distinguished  men  of  his  generation  who 


with  him  have  made  the  name  and  consideration  of  this  literary  community 
of  Cambridge  and  Boston  what  they  are,  and  whose  successors  are  not  yet 
visible  among  us  ! 


FROM    THE    BOSTON    JOURNAL,    OCT.    7. 

THE  life  of  a  professor  generally  displays  few  strange  or  startling  inci- 
dents ;  and  the  record  of  Professor  Peirce's  life  must  be  sought  in  what  he 
was,  rather  than  in  what  happened  to  him.  As  a  mathematician  he  attained 
the  first  rank  ;  and  he  had  few,  if  any,  companions  in  his  highest  intellectual 
labors.  He  was  noted  for  his  directness  and  conciseness  of  demonstration, 
and  by  the  intuitive  insight  with  which  he  approached  the  most  difficult 
problems.  When  engaged  upon  any  difficult  question  his  entire  energies 
were  bent  upon  it,  so  that,  although  he  had  brought  forward  works  nearly 
to  the  time  of  publication,  he  would  be  so  far  led  away  into  other  regions 
of  thought  that  he  found  it  difficult  and  irksome  to  return.  Thus  it  was 
that  his  published  works  are  few;  although  his  contributions  to  the  science 
of  mathematics  are  most  important,  and  his  text-books  and  elementary 
treatises  are  widely  circulated.  .  .  .  To  Professor  Peirce  belongs  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  one  of  the  founders  of  a  new  branch  of  mathematics,  the 
final  form  of  which  is  not  yet  determined,  but  which  may  prove  to  be  the 
great  event  in  the  mathematical  history  of  this  century.  The  contributions 
to  this  branch  have  been  made  by  Sir  W.  Rowan  Hamilton  in  his  "  Quater- 
nions," H.  Grassmann,  in  his  " Ausdtknumgslekref  and  Professor  Peirce 
in  his  "  Linear  Associative  Algebra."  This  work  has  been  published  in  an 
edition  of  some  one  hundred  copies,  which  was  not  put  in  type,  but  litho- 
graphed from  the  manuscript.  As  an  astronomer  Professor  Peirce's  record 
is  high,  although  he  has  written  no  work  on  the  science. 


FROM   THE   NEW-YORK   TRIBUNE,    OCT.    7. 

PROFESSOR  PEIRCE  was  the  son  of  Benjamin  Peirce,  the  librarian  of 
Harvard  University  from  1826  to  1831,  the  year  of  his  death.  Benjamin 
Peirce,  sen.,  was  the  first  scholar  in  the  class  of  iSor,  and  for  some  years  was 
a  merchant  at  Salem,  Mass.  After  his  appointment  as  librarian,  he  wrote  a 
partial  history  of  the  University,  bringing  it  down  to  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion: this  work  was  published  in  1833.  Benjamin  Peirce,  jun.,  was  born  at 
Salem,  April  4,  1809,  and  was  prepared  for  college  under  the  instruction  of 
Nathaniel  Bowditch  and  at  Andover.  lie  entered  Harvard  in  1825,  and 
immediately  distinguished  himself  by  his  devotion  to  mathematics.  He  was 
graduated  in  1829,  and  at  once  took  a  position  as  a  teacher  of  mathematics 
in  Round  Hill  School  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  then  under  the  charge  of 
Joseph  G.  Cogswell  and  George  Bancroft. 

In  1831  Professor  Peirce  returned  to  Cambridge  to  fill  the  position  of 
tutor  in  mathematics  in  the  University.  In  1833  he  was  made  University 
professor  of  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy,  and  in  1842  he  became 
Perkins  professor  of  astronomy  and  mathematics.  In  1867  Professor  Peirce 
was  made  Superintendent  of  the  United-States  Coast  Survey,  and  held  the 
position  for  seven  years.  Since  1849  he  had  been  consulting  astronomer  to 
the  American  Ef>hemcris  and  Nautical  Almanac,  and  for  many  years  he 
directed  the  theoretical  part  of  the  work.  In  1855  Professor  Peirce  was  one 
of  the  men  intrusted  with  the  organization  of  the  Dudley  Observatory.  For 
many  years  before  and  after  he  took  charge  of  the  Coast  Survey,  he  was 
consulted  frequently  in  the  work  of  the  office.  .  .  .  He  received  the  degree 
of  LL.D.  from  the  University  of  North  Carolina  in  1847,  anc^  from  Harvard 
University  in  1867.  He  was  elected  an  Associate  of  the  Royal  Astronomi- 
cal Society  of  London  in  1849,  and  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Lon- 
don in  1852.  He  was  elected  president  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  in  1853  (the  fifth  year  of  its  existence),  and  was  one 
of  the  original  members  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Societies  of  Edinburgh  and  Gottingen,  and  Honorary 
Fellow  of  the  Imperial  University  of  St.  Vladimir  at  Kiev.  .  .  .  Professor 
Peirce  was  married  in  July,  1833.  His  wife,  three  sons,  and  a  daughter 
survive  him.  His  eldest  son,  James  M.  Peirce,  is  University/professor  of 
mathematics  in  Harvard  ;  Charles  S.  Peirce  is  a  professor  in  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  ;  H.  H.  D.  Peirce  is  connected  with  the  firm  of  Herter 
Brothers,  of  this  city. 


FROM    THE    BOSTON   EVENING    TRANSCRIPT. 

HIGH  on  the  list  of  monumental  names 

Of  sons  of  science  in  thy  native  land, 

Thy  honored  name  conspicuous  stands  inscribed ; 

Nor  shall  its  capitals  grow  dim  v/ith  years. 

'Twas  fit  thy  long  farewell  to  earth  should  come 
When  autumn  shed  its  withered  leaves  around. 
No  wintry  chills  had  closed  the  dying  year  ; 
So  thou,  ere  wintry  age  had  chilled  thy  powers, 
Art  gathered  home  to  fields  of  higher  growth. 

Thy  exit  here  was  but  thy  entrance  there, 
Where  spring  perennial  blooms  upon  thy  path. 
Beside  thy  couch  a  guardian  stood  unseen, 
To  watch  the  signal  of  thy  latest  breath  ; 
And  at  its  hush  he  opened  wide  the  door, 
Let  in  the  sunlight  of  immortal  day 
To  beam  forever  on  thy  opening  eye. 

But  now  what  sounds  of  welcome  strike  thy  ear 
From  those  that  meet  thee  on  celestial  shores, 
Who  once  on  earth  the  paths  of  science  trod ! 
There  thou  now  read'st  creation's  highest  truth : 
All  who  have  lived  live  noiv  in  endless  life. 
No  dark  annihilation's  night  has  checked 
The  march  progressive  of  those  minds  like  thee, 
Who  in  time  past  the  lamp  of  learning  bore. 

Couldst  thou  now  speak  to  mortal  ears  once  more, 

Thy  words  would  tell  of  sympathetic  threads 

Leading  through  time  and  space  that  touched  thy  soul 

Upon  its  entrance  to  a  higher  life  ; 

Of  words  of  greeting  that  fell  on  thy  ear 

From  those  once  known  to  thee,  or  known  by  fame, 

As  thy  companions  in  the  search  profound 

Of  Nature's  truths  in  years  or  centuries  gone. 

An  Agassiz  is  there  to  welcome  thee, 


And  thy  own  Bowditch  is  not  far  away ; 

For  who  shall  say  that,  ere  this  present  hour, 

Thou  hast  not  met  in  converse  face  to  face 

A  Newton,  Leibnitz,  Bacon,  a  Laplace  ; 

And  with  them  seated  on  some  height  sublime, 

That  overlooks  the  wide  expanse  of  worlds, 

Hast  talked  of  laws  of  motion  yet  unknown 

In  mortal  depths  of  mathematic  lore ; 

And  with  thy  vision  that  can  far  outreach 

The  telescopic  gaze  with  which  thy  eye 

On  earth  could  penetrate  the  realms  of  space, 

Canst  planetary  globes  behold  unseen  by  man, 

And  trace  the  blazing  comet  as  it  sweeps 

Its  mighty  circuit  of  a  thousand  years? 

These  were  thy  hopes  expressed  when  yet  on  earth, 

While  bright  reality  stood  beckoning  on 

With  guiding  hand,  that  now  holds  fast  thy  own. 

Around  thee  no  materialistic  chain 

Thy  demonstrative  science  ever  threw 

To  hold  in  doubt  a  life  beyond  the  grave, 

And  dwarf  the  infinite  to  narrow  sense, 

That  claims  where  nought  is  seen  there  nought  can  be. 

Had  thy  bold  genius  lacked  the  potent  spring 

Coiled  by  immortal  hope's  inspiring  power, 

Unsinewed,  thou  hadst  never  climbed  so  high, 

And  left  thy  mark  emblazoned  to  the  world. 

The  planets  in  their  orbits  long  had  moved 
By  laws  that  never  were  revealed  to  man, 
Till  minds  like  thine  sought  out  the  hidden  key 
Which  laid  them  open  to  the  common  eye. 
Not  all  the  arts  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome, 
Nor  age  mediaeval' s  theologic  mist, 
Could  tell  that  force  centrifugal  was  bent 
By  force  c'entripetal's  well-balanced  curve, 
To  guide  earth's  motion  in  its  annual  round. 
Or,  if  this  truth  was  faintly  shadowed  forth 
By  minds  heretical  in  cells  obscure, 
It  found  no  credence  in  the  schools  long  sunk 
In  shades  of  dark  ecclesiastic  night. 


Hacbt  thou  then  lived  when  Church  infallible 
Prescribed  the  bounds  to  universal  truth, 
And  hadst  thou  said,  "Earth  on  its  axis  turns," 
Thou  mightst  for  years  in  prison  walls  confined 
Have  paid  the  forfeit  Galileo  paid. 

Thy  friends  in  sable  robes  and  bowed  with  grief, 
As  to  thy  lifeless  form  they  bade  farewell, 
Beheld  through  tearful  eyes  the  look  serene 
Stamped  by  thy  parting  soul  upon  that  brow 
Ere  he  did  turn  to  wing  his  upward  way. 

He  who  gave  life  gave  what  seems  death  to  man, 
But  'tis  a  death  that  gives  more  life  to  life. 
Creative  force  and  force  destructive  joined 
Live  nut  as  attributes  of  Power  Divine. 
God  with  one  hand  withdraws  the  life  of  earth, 
But  with  the  other  gives  the  life  of  heaven. 
Death  is  a  word  in  language  all  unknown, 
Save  in  the  lexicon  compiled  by  man. 

GEORGE  THWING. 


FROM  THE    SPRINGFIELD  REPUBLICAN,  OCT.  n. 

AT  the  death  of  some  men  and  of  many  women  it  is  proper  that  the  few 
who  knew  them  best  should  say  to  us  who  survive,  what  their  life-work  \vas, 
and  what  the  character  which  shaped  it  or  grew  out  of  it.  But  when  men  of 
a  public  genius  and  of  known  fame  pass  from  earth,  and  their  lives  are 
commemorated  by  other  public  persons,  there  may  yet  be  room  for  the  remi- 
niscences of  those  who  knew  them  less  intimately,  but  who,  from  casual 
association,  or  the  communication  of  pupil  with  teacher,  may  have  noted 
traits  that  sometimes  escape  the  observation  of  familiar  acquaintance.  It  is 
a  maxim  in  one  of  Professor  Peirce's  polygon  of  sciences  —  astronomy  — 
that  the  eye  sees  better  in  certain  star-fields  by  a  side  glance  than  by  direct 
gaze.  Let  this  be  the  excuse  (as  respect  and  affection  are  the  motive)  for 
adding  a  few  words  to  the  tributes  that  genius  and  friendship  will  pay  to  this 
man  of  friendly  and  soaring  genius. 


To  most  young  men  Peirce,  in  his  own  mathematical  demesne,  was  formid- 
able or  quite  inaccessible,  —  the  warder  of  an  enchanted  tower,  whose  ban- 
ner bore  a  strange  device  (being  interpreted,  it  said  Excelsior]  whose  speech 
was  foreign,  and  who  paced  his  battlements  with  a  far-looking  manner,  — 

"  His  thoughts  commercing  with  the  skies." 

But  when  this  wizard  stepped  down  from  his  post,  crossed  his  moat,  and 
opened  his  garden  gate,  nothing  could  be  more  attractive  than  the  vistas  and 
plantations  he  opened  to  our  view.  I  remember  as  but  yesterday,  though  it  is 
well-nigh  thirty  years  ago,  the  blank  confusion  with  which  the  ill-instructed 
youth  confronted  his  problems  and  the  Sphinx  who  gave  them  out,  and  the 
thrill  of  enthusiasm  in  the  same  youth  when  the  range  and  scope  of  the 
mathematical  sciences  was  flashed  upon  his  imagination,  in  the  fascinating 
lectures,  of  which  he  gave  us  only  too  few.  Few  men  could  suggest  more 
while  saying  so  little,  or  stimulate  so  much  while  communicating  next  to 
nothing  that  was  tangible  and  comprehensible.  The  young  man  that  would 
learn  the  true  meaning  of  apprehension  as  distinct  from  comprehension,  should 
have  heard  the  professor  lecture,  after  reciting  to  him. 

Peirce  was  a  transcendentalist  in  mathematics,  as  Agassiz  was  in  zoology; 
and  a  certain  subtile  tie  of  affinity  connected  these  two  men,  so  unlike  in  their 
special  genius.  Looking  up  to  his  familiar  stars,  Peirce  might  have  said  to 
Agassiz,  as  Persius  to  Cornutus, — 

Nescio  qiiod  certe  est  quod  me  tibi  temperat  astrum; 
"  Some  star,  alone  to  heaven  known,  attuned  in  tone  these  souls  of  ours." 

Other  professors,  genial  or  learned  or  wise,  or  all  three  in  one,  like  Dr. 
Walker,  adorned  in  my  time  the  places  they  held  at  Cambridge,  but  Agassiz 
and  Peirce  were  the  men  of  genius  we  met  there.  Alike  in  this,  they  were 
also  alike  in  their  enthusiasm,  which  neither  the  piercing  scepticism  of  Cam- 
bridge could  wither,  nor  declining  years  chill  with  the  frost  of  age.  Indeed, 
we  have  fancied  that  Peirce  grew  more  enthusiastic  as  he  grew  older  :  those 
long  gray  locks  were  not  shaken  in  reproof  of  youthful  eagerness,  like  so 
many  bald  heads  we  have  known,  b.  ut  the  magnificent  front  they  encircled 
smiled  a  welcome  to  all  that  was  new  and  advancing.  The  thing  he  dis- 
trusted was  routine  and  fanatical  method,  whether  new  or  old  ;  for  thought, 
salient,  vital,  co-operative  thought,  in  novel  or  in  ancient  aspects,  he  had 
nothing  but  respect  and  furtherance.  Some  recent  words  of  his  are  both 
characteristic  and  instructive.  He  said  :  — 

"Those"  who  have  lived  long  enough  to  have   observed  the  growth  of 


American  colleges,  and  have  seen  in  how  short  a  time  the  favorite  seat  of 
learning  can  change  from  place  to  place  .  .  .  have  seen  flourishing  institu- 
tions reduced  to  comparative  inefficiency  by  the  loss  of  great  scholars  and 
vigorous  investigators  of  science.  It  is  questionable  whether  Harvard  is  not 
already  suffering  in  this  direction,  whether  there  is  not  too  profuse  an  expen- 
diture upon  class-teaching,  and  whether  the  outlay  to  supply  the  loss  of  the 
higher  and  the  more  inspiring  instruction,  which  is  given  by  such  men  as 
Felton  and  Agassiz  and  Wyman  and  \Vinlock,  is  not  unfortunately  restricted. 
Enthusiasm,  which  is  the  highest  clement  of  successful  instruction,  can  best 
be  imparted  near  the  fountain-head,  where  the  springs  of  knowledge  flow 
purest,  and  where  the  waters  are  undiluted  by  the  weakening  influence  of 
text-book  literature." 

Those  who  stood  near  Professor  Peirce  in  these  later  years  know  well 
that  he  did  not  share  the  cool  indifference,  still  less  the  irreverent  aversion 
to  the  Father  of  souls,  which  has  been  a  growing  evil  among  men  of  science. 
He  did  verily  believe  in  the  human  soul,  and  of  course  in  the  divine  soul ; 
and  he  saw  no  reason  and  had  no  wish  to  avoid  the  consequences  of  that  be- 
lief. It  was  no  doubt  with  this  thought  in  mind,  as  well  as  from  his  admira- 
tion for  Professor  Harris  and  others  concerned  in  the  Concord  School  of 
Philosophy,  that  he  welcomed  it  so  cordially  and  counselled  them  so  wisely 
respecting  it.  He  alone  of  the  Cambridge  professors  was  consulted  in 
advance  concerning  it ;  and  perhaps  he  was  the  only  one  among  them  who 
could  then  have  foreseen,  as  he  did,  its  mission  and  its  probable  success,  or 
who  would  have  lent  his  name  and  voice  to  the  undertaking.  For  this,  and 
for  many  evidences  of  friendly  support  in  causes  that  appeal  but  faintly  to 
populaf  recognition,  at  least  in  their  early  stages,  some  of  us  cherish  with 
renewed  affection  the  memory  of  this  public-spirited  man. 

Of  his  special  work  in  science,  others  can  better  speak,  or  have  already 
spoken.  But  it  may  here  be  said  that  he  never  overvalued  his  services  in  this 
direction :  he  was  willing  to  be  esteemed  for  less  than  he  had  done,  and 
could  join  most  heartily  in  the  praise  of  others  who  perhaps  owed  their  im- 
pulse to  him.  Modest  and  magnanimous,,  but  not  unobservant,  his  ambition 
for  personal  distinction  was  early  and  easily  satisfied ;  and  he  thus  rid  himself 
of  what  is  to  most  men  of  science  a  perturbing,  and  too  often  an  ignoble,  ele- 
ment of  discomfort.  America  has  nothing  to  regret  in  his  career  but  that  it 
must  now  be  closed  ;  while  her  people  have  much  to  learn  from  his  long  and 
honorable  life.  F.  B.  S. 

CONCORD,  Oct.  7,  1880. 


FROM    THE   NATION,    NEW   YORK,   OCT.  14. 

THE  name  of  Benjamin  Peirce,  who  died  in  Cambridge,  Oct.  6,  has  shed 
lustre  upon  mathematics,  and  physics  in  America  for  many  years.  Born  at 
Salem,  Mass.,  April  4,  1809,  he  was  graduated  from  Harvard  College  at  the 
age  of  twenty,  and  two  years  afterwards  was  appointed  tutor.  For  forty- 
nine  years  he  was  directly  connected  with  the  Faculty  of  the  College. 
He  published  a  series  of  text-books  on  pure  mathematics,  also  a  quarto  vol- 
ume on  analytical  mechanics,  and  a  lithographed  volume  on  linear  and 
associative  algebra,  besides  making  numerous  contributions  to  scientific 
periodicals,  the  proceedings  of  learned  bodies,  and  the  appendices  of  the 
United  States  Coast  Survey  Reports.  The  enthusiastic  admiration  felt  tow- 
ards him  by  his  intimate  friends  was  due  to  his  moral  as  well  as  to  his 
intellectual  character.  Making  the  concession  that  there  was  occasionally  a 
touch  of  intolerance  in  his  manner  towards  pretentious  mediocrity,  they  would 
allow  nothing  in  him  to  have  been  aught  else  than  of  the  highest  quality. 
Persons  who  could  not  understand  a  word  of  his  abstruse  speculations  were 
compelled  to  listen  to  his  earnest  argument,  and  knew  that  his  conclusions 
must  be  important  and  true,  even  when  they  did  not  know  what  his  conclu- 
sions were.  Successive  classes  complained  of  him  that  he  did  not  make 
himself  plain  to  the  ordinary  understanding,  that  he  was  not  a  good  teacher  ; 
yet  they  felt  a  potent  influence  from  him  stimulating  them  to  higher  efforts  of 
the  mind  and  to  a  nobler  moral  stand. 

His  published  works  are  remarkable  for  the  novelty  or  originality,  both  of 
their  lines  of  thought  and  of  their  methods.  He  was  singularly  direct  and 
clear :  the  only  obscurity  which  is  ever  found  in  his  writings  is  that  which 
arises  from  the  omission  of  the  simpler  links  in  the  chain  of  reasoning.  But 
to  a  well-grounded  mathematician  this  very  brevity  becomes  an  efficient  source 
of  perspicuity.  No  fog  is  more  bewildering  than  verbosity,  which  never  ap- 
proached Peirce's  writings.  His  mind  moved  with  great  rapidity,  and  it  was 
with  difficulty  that  he  brought  himself  to  write  out  even  the  briefest  record  of 
its  excursions.  In  a  mathematical  society  over  which  he  presided  for  some 
years,  the  contrast  between  him  and  the  secretary,  Professor  Winlock,  was  as 
noteworthy  as  the  remarkable  talent  of  both.  The  society  comprised  half  a 
dozen  other  men  of  some  reputation  in  Cambridge  and  Boston,  who  met  to 
discuss  purely  mathematical  topics.  Each  member  would  bring  forth  some- 
thing novel  in  his  own  particular  branch  of  inquiry  ;  and  in  the  discussion 
which  followed  it  would  almost  invariably  appear  that  Peirce  had,  while  the 


paper  was  being  read,  pushed  out  the  author's  methods  to  far  wider  results 
than  the  author  had  dreamed.  The  same  power  of  extending  rapidly  in  his 
own  mind  novel  mathematical  researches,  which  ordinary  men  could  have 
done  only  by  days  of  labor  with  paper  and  pencil,  was  exhibited  at  the  ses- 
sions of  every  scientific  body  and  every  chance  meeting  of  a  scientific  charac- 
ter at  which  he  was  present.  What  was  quite  as  admirable  was  the  way  in 
which  he  did  it,  giving  the  credit  of  the  thought  always  to  the  author  of  the 
essay  under  discussion.  His  pupils  thus  frequently  received  credit  for  what 
was  in  reality  far  beyond  their  attainment.  He  robbed  himself  of  fame  in 
two  ways :  by  giving  the  credit  of  his  discoveries  to  those  who  had  merely 
suggested  the  line  of  thought,  and  by  neglecting  to  write  out  and  publish 
what  he  had  himself  thought  out. 

Professor  Peirce's  activity  of  mind  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  special 
topics  of  physics  and  mathematics.  He  was  among  the  first  to  read  any  new 
and  noteworthy  poem  or  tale,  to  hear  a  new  opera  or  oratorio ;  and  his  judg- 
ment and  criticism  upon  such  matters  was  keen  and  original.  His  interest 
in  religious  themes  was  deep,  but  it  was  in  the  fundamental  doctrines  rather 
than  in  the  debates  of  sectarians :  he  was  a  devout  believer  in  Christianity, 
but  held  to  no  established  creed.  The  quickness  of  his  observation  of  exter- 
nal things  was  as  decided  as  was  his  power  of  abstraction.  The  plants  and 
insects  by  the  roadside  he  observed  as  a  naturalist  observes  them.  To  his 
paper,  read  in  1849,  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  the  botanists  and  zoologists  are  indebted  for  what  will,  we  think, 
in  the  future  progress  of  biology  prove  to  be  a  great  intellectual  step  in  phys- 
ics, lie  showed  in  the  vegetable  world  the  demonstrable  presence  of  an 
intellectual  plan  ;  that  what  had  been  called  phyllotaxis  involved  an  alge- 
braic idea  :  Mr.  Chauncey  Wright  afterward  showed  that  this  algebraic  idea 
was  the  solution  of  a  physical  problem.  There  the  matter  dropped,  but  it 
will  not  lie  neglected  forever  ;  and  in  future  discussions  the  value  of  this  and 
of  sundry  other  of  Peirce's  contributions  to  organic  morphology  must  be 
acknowledged. 

The  higher  mathematical  labors  of  so  eminent  a  geometer  must,  of  course, 
lie  beyond  the  course  of  general  recognition.  Among  the  things  which  give 
him  a  just  claim  to  this  title  may  be  mentioned  his  discussion  of  the  motions 
of  two  pendulums  attached  to  a  horizontal  cord ;  of  the  motions  of  a  top ;  of 
the  fluidity  and  tides  of  Saturn's  ring;  of  the  forms  of  fluids  enclosed  in  ex- 
tensible sacs  ;  of  the  motions  of  a  sling ;  of  the  orbits  of  the  comet  of  1843, 
Uranus,  and  Neptune  ;  of  the  criteria  for  rejecting  doubtful  observations ; 


of  a  new  form  of  binary  arithmetic  ;  of  systems  of  linear  and  associative 
algebra  ;  of  Espy's  theory  of  storms  ;  of  various  mechanical  games,  puzzles, 
etc. ;  of  various  problems  in  geodesy ;  of  the  lunar  tables,  and  occultations 
of  the  Pleiades,  etc.,  etc.  When  in  1846  he  announced  in  the  American 
Academy  that  Galle's  discovery  of  Neptune  in  the  place  predicted  by  Le 
Verrier  was  a  happy  accident,  the  President,  Edward  Everett,  "  hoped  the 
announcement  would  not  be  made  public :  nothing  could  be  more  improbable 
than  such  a  coincidence."  —  "Yes,"  replied  Peirce,  "  but  it  would  be  still  more 
strange  if  there  were  an  error  in  my  calculations,"  —  a' confident  assertion 
which  the  lapse  of  time  has  vindicated.  None  of  his  labors,  perhaps,  lie  far- 
ther above  the  ordinary  reach  of  thought  than  his  little  lithographed  volume 
on  Linear  and  Associative  Algebra.  In  this  he  discusses  the  nature  of  mathe- 
matical methods,  and  the  characteristics  which  are  necessary  to  give  novelty 
and  unity  to  a  calculus.  Then  he  passes  to  a  description  of  seventy  or  eighty 
different  kinds  of  simple  calculus.  Almost  no  comment  is  given;  but  the 
mathematical  reader  discovers,  as  he  proceeds,  that  only  three  species  of  cal- 
culus, having  each  a  unity  in  itself,  have  been  hitherto  used  to  any  great  ex- 
tent,—  namely,  ordinary  algebra,  differentials  or  fluxions,  and  quaternions. 
Whether  the  clinant  algebra  of  Ellis  would  stand  Peirce's  tests,  we  have  not 
examined.  But  what  a  wonderful  volume  of  prophecy  that  is  which  describes 
seventy  or  eighty  species  of  algebra,  any  one  of  which  would  require  genera- 
tion after  generation  of  ordinary  mathematicians  to  develop  !  Besides  his 
labors  as  professor  at  Cambridge,  Peirce  was  always  of  great  assistance  in 
the  American  Ephemeris,  and  in  the  Coast  Survey,  of  which  he  was  for  a 
time  superintendent.  The  reports  of  that  Survey  and  the  tables  of  the 
Ephemeris  have  rapidly  raised  the  scientific  reputation  of  America,  which,  in 
1843,  stoocl  m  astronomy  among  the  lowest  of  civilized  nations,  and  is  now 
among  the  highest,  —  a  change  which  was  by  no  means  ungrateful  to  Peirce's 
strongly  patriotic  feeling,  and  which  he  could  not  but  know  was  as  much  due 
to  himself  as  to  any  other  person. 


FROM    THE    WOMAN'S  JOURNAL,   OCT.  23. 

THE  death  of  this  chief  among  American  mathematicians  should  cause  an 
especial  feeling  of  loss  on  the  part  of  women,  inasmuch  as  he,  like  his  friend 


Agassiz,  was  a  life-long  advocate  of  higher  education  for  both  sexes.  Many 
years  before  the  "Annex"  was  ever  dreamed  of,  he  formed  a  class  in  geom- 
etry for  girls  in  Cambridge,  of  which  my  own  elder  sister  was  a  member  ;  and 
he  more  than  once  received  young  women  as  pupils  in  the  higher  mathematics. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  and  warmest  friends  of  school  suffrage  for  women, 
attending  some  of  the  first  and  some  of  the  latest  meetings  on  that  subject, 
down  to  the  time  of  his  last  illness ;  and  on  one  of  these  occasions,  last  April 
or  thereabouts,  at  a  meeting  held  in  Boston,  he  made  an  appeal  to  women  for 
the  discharge  of  their  duty  under  the  law,  —  an  appeal  so  solemn  and  impress- 
ive as  to  hold  the  audience  spell-bound.  There  was  always  something 
peculiarly  serious  in  his  manner  and  thrilling  in  his  voice,  when  he  was 
deeply  moved ;  and  I  should  not  think  that  any  person  who  heard  him  at 
that  particular  time  could  ever  forget  it. 

Professor  Peirce  was  one  of  the  last  links  between  the  old  and  new  Har- 
vard College.  He  recalled  a  period  when  the  numerical  smallness  of  the 
corps  of  professors  was  balanced  by  remarkable  individual  instances  of 
strength  and  talent ;  so  that,  while  the  total  weight  of  influence  exerted  over 
pupils  may  have  been  less  than  now,  the  strength  of  individual  impression  was 
perhaps  greater.  It  is  the  fashion  to  speak  of  Professor  Peirce  as  a  man  of 
great  mathematical  genius,  but  unfitted  for  a  teacher ;  as  one  whose  books 
were  obscure,  and  whose  personal  instructions  difficult  an  1  discouraging. 
But,  speaking  as  one  of  his  earlier  pupils,  I  can  say  that  his  was  on  the 
whole  the  most  stimulating  intellectual  influence  I  ever  encountered  ;  that  no 
text-books  bring  back  such  associations  of  mental  excitement  as  his  Geom- 
etry and  Algebra  and  Trigonometry ;  I  never  open  them  without'wishing  that 
I  could  resume  that  particular  study  with  him  as  a  teacher ;  and  this,  after 
all,  must  be  the  test  of  influence. 

Perhaps  there  was  something  particularly  favorable  in  the  circumstances 
under  which  I  first  knew  him.  My  class  in  Harvard  College  was  the  first  in 
which  was  tried  a  short-lived  experiment  toward  what  is  now  called  the  Elec- 
tive System.  By  the  plan  then  attempted,  mathematics  ceased  to  be  a  pre- 
scribed s-tudy  after  the  sophomore  year ;  and  only  those  continued  it  who 
voluntarily  chose  that  elective.  This  system,  now  familiar,  was  then  a  nov- 
elty ;  and  it  was  probably  a  real  pleasure  for  a  man  of  genius  like  Peirce  to 
have  in  his  hands  only  a  few  who  were  willing  to  be  taught,  instead  of  a  large 
number  of  unwilling  pupils  to  be  dragged  along.  In  the  first  glow,  he  proba- 
bly overrated  both  the  zeal  and  the  capacity  of  his  special  students  ;  but  vhe 
certainly  threw  himself  with  the  greatest  zest  into  the  work  of  instruction. 


5' 


He  gave  us  his  "  Curves  and  Functions  "  in  the  form  of  lectures ;  and  some- 
times, even  while  stating  his  propositions,  he  would  be  seized  with  some 
mathematical  inspiration,  would  forget  pupils,  notes,  every  thing,  and  would 
rapidly  clash  off  equation  after  equation,  following  them  out  with  smaller  and 
smaller  chalk-marks  into  the  remote  corners  of  the  blackboard,  forsaking  his 
delightful  task  only  when  there  was  literally  no  more  space  to  be  covered, 
and  coming  back  with  a  sigh  to  his  actual  students.  There  was  a  great  fasci- 
nation about  these  interruptions:  we  were  present,  as  it  seemed,  at  mathe- 
matics in  the  making  ;  it  was  like  peeping  into  a  necromancer's  ceil,  and 
seeing  him  at  work  ;  or  as  if  our  teacher  were  one  of  the  old  Arabian 
algebraists  recalled  to  life.  The  less  we  knew  of  what  was" going  on,  the 
more  attractive  was  the  enthusiasm  of  the  man ;  and  his  fine  face  and  impress- 
ive presence  added  to  the  charm. 

The  real  fame  of  Professor  Peirce  will  of  course  rest  on  those  great 
mathematical  discoveries  and  suggestions,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  those  best 
qualified  to  judge,  will  gradually  exert  a  marked  influence  on  the  science  of 
the  future.  As  to  this  it  would  be  presumption  in  me  to  express  an  opinion  ; 
but,  having  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  included  under  very  favorable  circum- 
stances among  his  pupils,  I  can  testify  most  cordially  as  to  the  strong  influ- 
ence he  exerted  on  at  least  one  of  that  number.  T.  W.  H. 


FROM    THE   AMERICAN   JOURNAL   OF  SCIENCE  FOR 
NOVEMBER. 

PROFESSOR  BENJAMIN  PEIRCE,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Perkins  professor  of 
astronomy  and  mathematics  at  Harvard  University,  died  at  his  home  in 
Cambridge,  Oct.  6,  in  the  seventy-second  year  of  his  age,  and  the  fiftieth  of 
his  connection  with  the  University.  His  father  and  mother  were  both  dis- 
tinguished for  their  acuteness  of  mind ;  and  his  instructor,  Nathaniel  Bow- 
ditch,  predicted  that  the  boy  Peirce  would  be  one  of  the  first  mathematicians 
of  his  day,  —  a  prediction  fully  realized.  In  1831,  two  years  after  graduation 
at  Harvard  College,  he  was  appointed  mathematical  tutor,  in  1833  professor, 
and  in  1842  he  was  appointed  to  the  chair  he  filled  and  honored  until  his 
death.  He  found  it  consistent  with  his  devotion  to  science  to  do  much  work 
in  connection  with  other  institutions  than  Harvard  during  his  professorship. 


32 


Among  these  services,  in  1849  ne  undertook  the  revision  of  the  American 
Ephemeris  and  Nautical  Almanac,  for  which  he  prepared  his  valuable  lunar 
tables.  In  1855  he  was  one  of  the  commission  to  organize  the  Dudley 
Observatory.  From  1867  to  1874  he  was  in  charge  of  the  United-States 
Coast-Survey,  and  rendered  great  service  to  the  country  and  to  science  by 
recruiting  the  languishing  financial  strength  of  that  service,  and  impressing 
upon  Congress  the  duty  of  effectually  re-organizing  and  pushing  forward  the 
work  so  much  retarded  by  the  civil  war.  He  was  one  of  the  original  mem- 
bers of  the  National  Academy.  He  threw  all  his  influence  into  the  organiza- 
tion and  successful  development  of  the  American  Association,  which  he 
always  held  should  be  free  from  class  distinctions,  and  to  which  he  would 
never  be  elected  in  the  higher  class  of  fellows,  but  was  a  member  only.  He 
contributed  very  largely  to  make  the  American  Academy  of  Boston  what  it 
is;  and  throughout  the  whole  of  the  scientific  literature  of  the  past  fifty  years 
Peirce's  name  frequently  occurs  as  a  contributor  upon  mathematical  and 
physical  topics.  In  his  own  department  of  the  University  he  thoroughly 
impressed  the  concise  methods  of  thought  so  effectually  used  in  his  greater 
works.  The  teaching  at  Harvard  is  based  upon  his  methods  and  notation, 
and  these  methods  are  models  of  perspicuity  and  elegance.  In  physical 
astronomy  perhaps  his  greatest  works  were  in  connection  with  the  planetary 
theory,  his  analysis  of  the  Saturnian  system,  his  researches  regarding  the 
lunar  theory,  and  the  profound  criticism  of  the  discovery  of  Neptune  follow- 
ing the  investigations  of  Adams  and  of  Leverrier.  As  a  mathematician,  his 
work  on  Analytical  Mechanics,  his  treatise  on  Curves,  Functions,  and  Forces, 
and  his  memoir  on  Linear  Associative  Algebra,  all  evince  extraordinary 
originality  and  genius.  Many  of  his  detached  papers,  relating  to  the  theory 
of  observing,  and  the  solution  of  special  problems,  show  an  appreciation  of 
the  needs  in  applied  mathematics  which  perhaps  has  not  been  exhibited  by 
the  same  order  of  genius  since  the  death  of  his  friend  and  admirer,  Gauss. 
His  originality  was  fostered  by  his  habit  of  examining  a  new  mathematical 
question  for  himself,  and  only  referring  to  the  work  of  other  geometers  after 
he  had  first  fairly  exerted  his  own  powers  of  analysis. 

His  genius  was  early  recognized  abroad  ;  and  elections  to  the  Royal  Socie- 
ties of  London,  Edinburgh,  and  Gottingen,  and  to  various  Continental  socie- 
ties, were  awarded  him.  The  versatility  and  breadth  of  his  mind  is  partly 
shown  by  the  scope  of  his  papers  ;  but  to  those  who  came  in  daily  contact  with 
him  he  showed  such  a  penetrating  discernment  of  the  conditions  of  a  problem, 
he  made  such  sagacious  suggestions  regarding  the  inferences  to  be  drawn 


33 


from  the  data  before  him,  he  showed  such  a  wonderful  power  of  generaliza- 
tion, that  the  papers  he  has  given  to  the  world  only  seem  to  indicate  the 
quality  of  work  his  mind  had  constahtly  before  it,  and  to  afford  no  idea  of 
the  multitudinous  problems  he  had  been  interested  in,  and  discarded  as  soon 
as  the  solution  became  evident  to  himself.  He  habitually  ascribed  to  his 
listener  a  power  of  assimilation  which  the  listener  rarely  possessed.  He 
assumed  his  readers  could  follow  wherever  he  led  ;  and  this  made  his  lec- 
tures hard  to  follow,  his  books  brief,  difficult,  and  comprehensive,  and  his  best 
work  only  when  his  listeners  were  students  trained  in  his  methods  who  had 
already  attained  some  skill  as  mathematicians.  He  was  personally  magnetic 
in  his  presence.  His  pupils  loved  and  revered  him,  and  to  the  young  man 
he  always  lent  a  helping  hand  in  science.  He  inspired  in  them  a  love  of  truth 
for  its  own  sake.  His  own  faith  in  Christianity  had  the  simplicity  of  a 
child's  ;  and  whatever  radiance  could  emanate  from  a  character  which  com- 
bined the  greatest  intellectual  attainment  with  the  highest  moral  worth,  that 
radiance  cast  its  light  upon  those  who  were  in  his  presence.  His  works  are 
already  scarce,  and  some  of  them  hardly  obtainable  ;  notably  the  second  vol- 
ume of  his  "  Curves,  Functions,  and  Forces,"  and  his  memoir  on  "  Linear 
Associative  Algebra."  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  the  manuscripts  he  has 
left  be  completed  so  far  as  possible,  and  made  accessible ;  and  this  work 
could  devolve  on  no  person  so  well  qualified  as  is  his  distinguished  son, 
Professor  James  Mills  Peirce.  L.  VV. 


FROM   NATURE   FOR    OCT.  28. 

WE  regret  to  have  to  record  the  death  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  on  Oct.  6,  of 
Professor  Peirce  of  Harvard  University.  .  .  .  For  the  past  thirty-five  years 
he  has  occupied  a  professorship  at  Harvard ;  and  as  a  lecturer,  author, 
thinker,  and  investigator,  has  ranked  not  only  among  the  first  of  a  numerous 
corps  of  professors,  but  also  among  the  first  of  American  men  of  science. 
Devoting  himself  originally  to  mathematics,  Professor  Peirce  has  successively 
pursued  exhaustive  studies  in  all  the  branches  more  closely  allied  to  mathe- 
matics, and  has  attained  eminence  equally  in  physics,  astronomy,  mechanics, 
and  navigation.  His  numerous  investigations  in  these  various  departments, 
while  read  before  various  scientific  societies,  have  been  published,  unfortu- 


nately,  for  the  most  part  in  the  briefest  possible  form,  and  the  results  of  many 
of  his  researches  are  to  be  found  only  in  the  manuals  he  published.  As  an 
author  Professor  Peirce  was  highly  esteemed  upon  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic ; 
his  work  on  analytical  mechanics,  which  appeared  in  1857,  being  regarded 
then,  even  in  Germany,  as  the  best  of  its  kind.  ...  As  a  lecturer  Professor 
Peirce  was  highly  esteemed  in  both  scientific  and  popular  circles.  It  is  rela- 
ted that  in  1843,  ^Y  a  sei"ies  of  popular  lectures  on  astronomy,  he  so  excited 
the  public  interest  that  the  necessary  funds  were  supplied  for,  erecting  an 
observatory  at  Harvard.  A  remarkable  series  of  lectures  on  "Ideality  in 
Science,"  delivered  by  him  in  1879  before  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston, 
attracted  the  general  attention  of  American  thinkers,  on  account  of  the 
thoughtful  consideration  of  the  vexed  question  of  science  and  religion. 

Much  of  Professor  Peirce's  activity  was  absorbed  by  his  duties  as  the  head 
of  the  American  Coast  Survey,  a  position  in  which  he  succeeded  Professor 
Bache.  He  brought  to  this  work  the  same  degree  of  zeal  and  ability  which 
were  so  brilliantly  evidenced  by  his  predecessor,  and  constantly  maintained 
the  well-earned  reputation  of  the  Coast  Survey  among  the  hydrographic 
efforts  of  our  day.  Professor  Peirce  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Ameri- 
can National  Academy  of  Sciences.  In  1853  he  presided  over  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  . 


FROiM   THE   JOURNAL   OF  SOCIAL  SCIENCE,  No.  XII. 

...  He  was  not  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  American  Social 
Science  Association  when  organized  in  1865,  but  he  joined  it  in  1868  or  early 
in  1869,  and  for  three  years  gave  great  attention  to  the  Department  of  Edu- 
cation, of  which  he  was  chairman  from  1869  to  1872.  At  the  time,  in  1872-73, 
when  the  practical  discontinuance  of  the  Association  was  favored  by  many 
members,  by  reason  of  the  difficulties  attending  its  work,  Professor  Peirce 
was  one  of  those  who  most  earnestly  urged  its  continuance;  and  it  was 
mainly  owing  to  his  remarks  and. those  of  Professor  Agassiz,  at  one  or  two 
public  meetings  in  Boston,  that  the  Association  remained  in  activity  during 
the  years  of  panic  and  political  change  that  followed  in  the  re-election  of 
Gen.  Grant  in  1872.  He  supported  the  course  taken  by  the  Association  in 
1874,  in  favor  of  "  honest  money,"  and  in  that  year,  for  the  first  time,  read  a 


paper  at  our  General  Meeting  in  New  York.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the 
interesting  General  Meetings  held  at  Detroit  in  1875,  at  Saratoga  in  1876-77, 
and  finally  at  Cincinnati  in  1878,  on  which  occasion  he  presided,  and  made 
the  address  here  printed.  He  also  joined  in  the  debates,  particularly  of  the 
educational  section,  and  was  foremost  in  all  the  work  of  that  year. 

Toward  the  end  of  1878  he  brought  forward  in  the  Council  a  comprehen- 
sive plan  for  connecting  our  Association  with  a  great  university,  —  a  plan  for 
which  the  time  was  not  then  ripe,  but  which  is  likely,  in  some  form,  to  be 
adopted  hereafter,  and  to  add  materially  to  the  opportunities  of  university 
culture  in  America.  This  was  a  subject  on  which  he  thought  and  felt  pro- 
foundly, and  which  also  much  occupied  the  mind  of  Agassiz  in  his  later 
years.  The  discussions  of  our  Department  of  Education  in  1869-70  show 
how  the  organization  of  American  universities  was  viewed  by  these  two  men 
of  genius  and  of  wide  observation.  .  .  .  Professor  Peirce's  conception  of  the 
American  Social  Science  Association  was  this,  —  that  it  should  be  a  university 
for  the  people,  —  combining  those  who  can  contribute  any  thing  original  in 
social  science  into  a  temporary  academical  senate,  to  meet  for  some  weeks  in 
a  given  place  and  debate  questions  with  each  other,  as  well  as  to  give  out 
information  for  the  public.  In  this  line  of  thought  he  favored,  also,  the 
establishment  of  'the  Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  to  do  a  similar  work  in 
the  speculative  studies ;  and  he  lived  to  see  the  partial  realization  of  what  he 
foresaw  in  this  instance.  He  was  ready  at  all  times,  while  strength  lasted,  to 
co-operate  in  such  enterprises  for  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  good  of  man- 
kind ;  and  this  Association  owes  him  much  for  such  cordial  co-operation  and 
for  wise  counsel  most  modestly  given.  He  declined  to  hold  the  titular  office 
of  President,  which  was  tendered  him  in  1878,  but  performed  its  duties  at  that 
time,  as  he  had  before  performed  all  the  humbler  duties  assigned  him.  How 
nobly  he  thought  of  our  work,  his  Cincinnati  Address  will  fully  show.  May 
this  Association  deserve  and  inherit  what  he  has  predicted-for  its  future  ! 

F.  B.  S. 


PEIRCE  I  who  wast  ever  in  our  minds 

As  one  we  wholly  loved, 
My  soul  in  this  a  solace  finds, 

Since  thine  hath  been  removed, 

That  every  night,  from  out  the  stars 

Two  large  dark  eyes  I  see, 
Looking  (as  'twere  through  golden  bars) 

All  tenderness  on  me : 

And  we  believe,  as  thou  didst  teach, 

That  past  the  outer  lights, 
Which  once  by  numbers  thou  couldst  reach, 

Thy  mind  hath  gained  the  heights 

Where  love,  by  knowledge  more  complete, 

Shall  not  withhold  from  us 
Thine  old  affection's  constant  heat, 

Making  ours  deathless  thus. 

T.  W.  PARSONS. 

Christmas-tide,  1880. 


37 


ADDRESS.1 

BY   THE    REV.   JAMES    FREEMAN    CLARKE,   D.D. 

It  is  seldom  that  a  man  goes  away,  whose  place  is  not  soon  and  easily 
filled.  He  may  be  a  little  wiser,  a  little  better,  a  little  stronger  than  others ; 
but  others  come  so  near  him  in  his  special  function  that  they  soon  replace 
him.  Only  occasionally  can  we  use  the  poet's  words,  and  say, — 

"  Nee  viget  quicquam  simile  aut  secnnduin."  — 
"  No  one  like  him,  no  one  near  him." 

But  we  must  say  so  now.  Our  friend,  who  has  left  us,  filled  a  place  no  one 
else  can  occupy.  In  that  department  of  intelligence  in  which  alone  man 
seems  emancipated  from  human  liability  to  error,  —  in  which,  with  sure  foot, 
he  can  advance  step  by  step,  along  the  path  of  the  creative  mind,  —  our 
brother  stood  among  us  alone.  In  this  sphere  he  was  able  to  speak  as  one 
having  authority  ;  and  who  was  there  who  could  question  or  criticise  ?  What 
a  singular  and  strange  gift  was  this  mighty  function  of  his  intellect !  It  was 
born  with  him.  He  seemed  able,  from  the  very  first,  to  read,  with  easy  facil- 
ity, the  problems  of  mathematics  which  others  could  only  solve  with  labor. 
As  a  classmate  I  remember  that  our  teacher  in  mathematics,  the  good  and 
strong  man  who  has  just  preceded  him,  —  George  Ripley, — never  ventured 
in  the  recitation  room  to  do  more  than  ask  one  question  of  Peirce  ;  and  then 
allow  him  to  demonstrate  in  his  own  way,  as  he  pleased.  It  is  not  for  me, 
however,  to  speak  of  his  accomplishment  and  attainment  on  this  great  line 
of  thought.  I  leave  the  task  to  others,  who  will  tell  us  how  he  has  explored 
these  regions  of  mystery  alone,  and  has  gone  sounding  along  the  dim  and 
perilous  ways  untrodden  before  ;  how  he  has  furnished  new  methods  of  dis- 
covery for  those  who  shall  follow  him,  and  stated  some  results  which  thus 
far  no  critic  has  yet  seemed  able  either  to  accept  or  to  deny.  But  that  which 
I  most  feel  now,  as  I  stand  here  with  you  to  say  our  brief  farewell  to  this 
noble  friend  and  brother,  is,  that,  on  these  cold  peaks  of  primeval  thought, 
where  he  stood  alone  with  the  eternal  Laws  of  Nature,  he  saw  no  blind 

1  Spoken  at  the  funeral  in  Appleton  Chapel,  Saturday  afternoon,  Oct.  9. 


forces,  no  dead  laws,  but  always  spirit  and  life.  His  head  was  never  divorced 
from  his  heart.  While  studying  physical  facts  and  methods,  he  was  led,  not 
toward  materialism,  but  toward  idealism.  The  more  he  became  familiar  with 
Nature,  the  more  he  looked  through  Nature  up  to  the  God  of  Nature.  His 
intelligence  was  so  large  that  it  did  not  need  to  drop  the  spiritual  side  of  the 
universe,  in  its  contemplation  of  the  material  order  of  things,  but  was  able 
to  hold  both,  at  the  same  time,  in  its  ample  grasp.  One-sided  science  and 
one-sided  religion  may  be  hostile,  but  in  his  soul  these  two  were  one.  He 
saw  God  in  Nature,  as  in  history  and  in  life.  His  religion  was  rational,  and 
his  science  was  religious.  What  a  happy  life  has  his  been  !  You,  his  fellow- 
workers  during  long  years,  in  this  University,  who  have  seen  his  manner  of 
living ;  you,  his  companions  in  science,  who  have  taken  sweet  counsel  with 
him  on  those  high  themes,  and  walked  in  company  with  him  to  that  House  of 
God  which  men  call  Nature;  we,  his  friends  of  many. years,  classmates, 
brothers,  —  none  of  us  to-day,  can  shed  bitter  tears  for  him  who 

"  Having  run 

The  round  of  man's  appointed  years,  at  last, 
Life's  blessings  all  enjoyed,  life's  labors  done, 
Serenely  to  his  quiet  rest  has  passed." 

We  are  never  nearer  immortality  than  in  the  presence  of  such  a  death  as  this. 
We  do  not  feel,  we  cannot  imagine,  this  to  be  the  end.  That  marvellous 
power  which  holds  suns  and  atoms  equally  in  its  grasp ;  that  creative  exu- 
berance which  is  yet  so  conservative  that  it  gathers  up  every  fragment  so  that 
nothing  be  lost,  —  this  power  cannot  allow  the  personal  soul,  which  he  has 
brought  up  to  such  a  height  of  development,  to  be  dissipated  anew  into  empti- 
ness. The  mind  which  has  been  led  by  God  so  far,  cannot  stop  abruptly  here. 
If  no  little  bird,  on  its  rocking  nest  among  the  boughs,  is  forgotten  by  God,  we 
may  trust  ourselves  and  those  we  love  to  that  providence  which  holds  us  all 
in  the  hollow  of  its  hand.  It  were  almost  an  absurdity  in  creation,  for  such 
carefully  developed  souls,  the  ripe  fruit  of  long  ages  of  preparation,  to  come 
to  an  end  with  the  decay  of  their  earthly  organization.  The  Creator  has 
hung  an  impenetrable  veil  between  this  world  and  the  next,  shutting  us  out 
from  precise  knowledge  of  the  great  beyond,  and  so  confining  us  to  what  we 
can  know  and  do  here.  If  we  saw  more  of  the  future,  perhaps  we  should 
tire  too  soon  of  the  present.  But  some  things  we  may  believe.  Since  the 
Father  sends  death  to  all  his  children,  just  as  he  sends  them  life  ;  as  he  sends 
death  to  the  wise  and  weak,  to  the  saint  and  the  criminal,  to  the  believer  and 


40 


the  atheist,  —  death  must  be  good  ;  for  what  God  gives  to  all  is  a  blessing.  It 
must  be  a  good  thing  to  die  when  death  comes.  And  since  the  unexhausted 
powers  in  man  are  thought,  love,  and  action  ;  since  there  is  so  much  more  to 
know,  to  love,  and  to  do,  than  we  can  accomplish  here,  —  we  may  believe,  that, 
in  the  future  life,  our  heaven  will  be,  as  our  heaven  is  here,  in  having  plenty 
to  know,  plenty  to  love,  and  plenty  to  do.  How  much  work  here  is  just 
begun,  and  then  dropped !  How  the  tenderest  love  of  this  life  seems  cold 
and  weak  to  that  of  which  the  human  heart  is  capable  !  What  vast  problems 
of  thought  open  before  our  eyes,  insoluble  by  our  present  methods !  The 
best  things  we  have  or  do  in  this  world  are  only  prophecies  of  what  is  wait- 
ing for  us  hereafter.  We  open  our  arms  so  wide,  and  we  embrace  so  little  ! 
We  are  like  children  to  whom  the  mother  says,  "  Be  patient,  little  ones  :  there 
is  time  enough ;  you  shall  have  it  all  by  and  by."  Go  up,  then,  dear  friend, 
and  go  on  !  Outsoaring  the  shadow  of  our  night,  advancing  into  regions  of 
knowledge  to  which  all  former  insight  is  but  the  auroral  presage  of  coming 
day,  go  on,  to  see  what  you  foresaw  !  Go  up  into  larger  ranges  of  vision, 
into  a  mightier  fulness  of  comprehension.  The  soul  that  always  humbled 
itself  here  in  adoration  of  the  first  Fair,  sole  True,  will  be  exalted  into  com- 
munion with  the  intellectual  principalities  and  powers  above.  There,  too,  you 
will,  we  trust,  meet  again  the  noble  brothers  of  science  who  have  gone  before, 
—  those  who  also  believed  at  once  in  law  and  love,  in  things  seen  and  things 
unseen,  in  the  God  of  Nature  and  the  God  of  Reason  and  the  God  of  Spirit. 
There  you  will  meet  with  Agassiz  and  Jeffries  Wyman,  Henry  and  Bache,  and 
renew  on  a  higher  plane  the  studies  and  affections  of  earth.  Farewell, 
brother,  for  a  little  time.  We  who  remain  will  endeavor  to  use  these  golden 
hours  of  time  with  something  of  your  fidelity :  we  also  will  do  the  work  of 
Him  who  sent  us  while  it  is  day.  We  will  go  back  to  life,  not  sadly,  but 
grateful  to  Him  who  has  given  us  such  noble  friendships,  has  enabled  us  to 
be  the  witness  of  such  great  labors,  and  who  feeds  the  heart  with  such 
immortal  hopes. 


SERMON.1 

BY   THE    REV.  A.   P.   PEABODY,   D.D.,   LL.D. 

"  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life;  and  they  shall  never  perish."  —  JOHN  x.  28. 

As  most  of  you  well  know,  I  am  among  those  who  attach  to  declarations 
like  this  from  our  Saviour  infallible  authority,  and  who  believe  that  his  prom- 
ise of  eternal  life  was  sealed  and  confirmed  by  his  own  resurrection  from  the 
dead.  But  did  I  not  thus  believe,  I  still  should  derive  from  him  my  strongest 
argument  for  immortality.  If  he  bore  no  specially  divine  commission  for 
mankind,  if  he  simply  took  and  holds,  like  any  other  man,  the  place  due  to 
his  ability  and  character,  I  still  must  recognize  him,  the  world  tacitly 
recognizes  him,  as  the  greatest  of  men,  —  the  greatest  both  intellectually  and 
morally,  and  especially  so,  in  that  in  him,  mind  and  heart,  the  intellect  and  the 
spirit,  were  unified  as  we  know  not  of  their  having  been  in  any  one  beside. 
He  knew  human  nature  so  well,  that  while  all  moral  and  spiritual  teaching 
not  of  his  school  has  had  but  a  brief  currency,  the  world  has  been  constantly 
growing  into  the  appreciation  of  his  teaching  in  the  precise  proportion  in 
which  it  has  advanced  in  intelligence  and  culture.  At  the  same  time,  in 
strength  and  in  beauty,  in  purity  and  in  love,  in  those  virtues  that  give  might 
and  glory  to  manhood,  in  the  gentler  graces  that  enrich  and  adorn  quiet 
scenes  and  uneventful  life,  we  know  not  h;.s  peer.  No  other  character  pre- 
sents an  aspect  equally  blameless  and  lovely  in  every  view,  to  all  conditions 
of  men,  and  in  all  time. 

Such  a  spirit  as  his  cannot  but  have  the  clearest  spiritual  insight.  He 
convinces  me  by  my  conversance  with  him  that  he  knows  more  about  the 
realm  of  spiritual  being  tban  any  one  else  who  ever  trod  the  earth,  that  he 
beheld  God,  entered  into  the  Divine  mind,  drank  in  truth  from  its  living  and 
eternal  fountain,  as  no  other  human  being  ever  did;  and  what  he  says,  with 
entire  assurance,  with  regard  to  God  and  man,  commends  itself  to  my  im- 
plicit reception.  What  he  professes  to  know  I  must  believe.  What  I  of 
myself  dimly  see  and  faintly  hope  looks  clear  and  certain,  if  it  has  his  attes- 

1  Delivered  in  Appleton  Chapel,  Sunday  morning,  Oct.  10. 


tation.  In  the  spiritual  realm,  I  am  still  a  stranger  in  many  of  its  provinces, 
though  I  hope  to  be  more  than  a  sojourner ;  but  when  I  enter  into  commun- 
ion with  him,  I  feel  that  I  have  joined  myself  to  a  citizen  of  that  country, 
who  has  explored  the  whole  of  it,  and  on  whose  accounts  of  it  I  can  place 
full  reliance.  Now,  he  always  speaks  of  immortality  as  if  it  were  with  him 
a  matter,  not  of  doubt  or  conjecture,  not  of  mere  hope,  but  of  certainty. 

Nor  does  it  seem  to  me  of  small  interest  for  us,  that  in  general  it  has  been 
the  strong  and  good  who  have  had  this  assurance ;  while,  of  those  who  have 
denied  human  immortality  as  a  baseless  vision  of  fanaticism,  no  mean  pro- 
portion have  been  men  who  not  unfitly  might  have  felt  that  they  had  souls 
not  worth  preserving.  Not  that  I  would  cast  reproach  on  honest  scepticism, 
least  of  all  on  that  not  infrequent  type  which  dares  not  believe  so  great  a 
blessedness  ;  but  it  certainly  has  seldom  been  among  spiritually  minded  men, 
or  among  those  of  pure  and  high  morality,  —  that  is,  among  the  kind  of  men 
that  have  been  the  most  at  home  in  the  spiritual  world,  —  that  human  immor- 
tality has  reckoned  its  foremost  deniers. 

But  not  only  do  I  congratulate  myself  on  the  testimony  of  great  and  good 
men  in  harmony  with  that  of  Jesus  Christ,  —  it  is  when  I  think  of  such  men 
that  real  death  seems  utterly  opposed  to  nature,  and  in  itself  incredible.  Had 
not  Jesus  re-appeared,  think  you  that  John  and  Martha  and  Mary  could  have 
believed  him  wholly  dead  ?  Had  the  great  stone  never  been  rolled  away  from 
the  sepulchre,  would  not  the  saintly  women  who  went  thither  have  felt  that 
the  life  so  divinely  pure,  so  radiantly  beautiful,  had  sunk  from  their  sight, 
only  to  rise  in  some  other  chamber  of  that  Father's  house  of  which  he  had 
been  talking  so  familiarly  only  three  nights  before  ? 

But  without  dwelling  on  him,  the  All  Perfect,  have  we  not  a  like  feeling 
with  reference  to  all  persons  of  advanced  wisdom  and  worth  ?  In  our  own 
thought  we  cannot  make  them  dead.  They  will  not  stay  dead.  Press  down 
as  you  will  the  earth-clods  over  what  bore  their  names,  you  cannot  feel  that 
they  are  buried  there, — that  all  that  there  was  of  them  is  mouldering  and 
crumbling  away  under  the  ground. 

We  talk  of  a  finished  life,  a  life  beautifully  rounded  off,  one  that  has 
reached  its  natural  period,  and  is  harvested  in  its  late  autumn  like  a  shock  of 
corn  in  its  season.  There  are  no  such  lives  ;  or,  if  there  be  any,  they  are  the 
kind  of  lives  of  which  such  things  are  never  said.  The  only  finished  lives 
are  those  that  are  never  fairly  begun.  The  only  symmetrically  rounded  lives 
are  those  that  have  described  very  small  circles.  The  saint,  the  sage,  the 
genius,  though  he  live  to  fourscore,  feels  that  his  life  has  been  only  a  begin- 


43 


ning  to  live,  and  feels  so  the  more  profoundly,  the  farther  he  advances  in 
wisdom  and  goodness.  The  more  resplendently  he  reflects  the  Divine  image, 
the  more  transcendently  glorious,  beyond  his  present  attainment,  seems  to 
him  the  supreme  Archetype  of  goodness.  The  deeper  his  search  into  the 
works  and  providence  of  God,  the  more  vast  is  the  realm  of  the  unexplored ; 
for  each  new  province  that  becomes  known  to  him  abuts  on  every  side  upon 
provinces  unknown  or  but  dimly  seen.  Curiosity,  longing,  yearning,  craving 
for  more  of  love  and  of  goodness,  for  more  of  truth  and  of  light,  grows  by 
what  it  feeds  on,  and  is  never  more  intense  and  active  than  almost  or  quite 
on  the  brink  of  the  grave,  sometimes  in  the  very  last  moments  making 
the  hope  of  immortality  a  prophetic  vision  of  a  broader,  higher  scope  for  the 
cognitive  and  active  powers ;  while  if  there  be  a  brief  suspension  as  the 
body  lingers  and  languishes  under  the  death-shadow,  it  is  no  longer  or  more 
entire  than  may  have  intervened  in  the  infirmities  or  illnesses  of  earlier 
days. 

The  broken  column  was,  you  know,  the  old  heathen  symbol  of  a  life  cut 
down  on  its  midway  career.  If  there  be  a  reality  in  death,  the  symbol  is  still 
more  appropriate  to  the  lengthened  earthly  life  that  has  been  consecrated  to 
truth  and  duty.  But,  blessed  be  God,  the  column  is  not  broken.  What 
seems  the  line  of  fracture  is  but  the  jagged  lower  outline  of  a  cloud  which 
the  keen  vision  of  faith  can  pierce,  and  trace  the  column  as  it  rises  and  rises, 
stage  upon  stage,  into  the  upper  heavens  among  the  pillars  on  which  rests 
the  throne  of  the  Eternal.  Oh  !  never  seems  death  so  utterly  unreal  as  when 
it  hides  from  mortal  sight  the  greatly  good,  the  excellently  great.  I  am  sure 
that  to  them,  so  far  as  they  retain  self-consciousness  under  the  death-shadow, 
it  is  but  a  fleeting  shadow  ;  and  if  for  a  little  while  it  rests  densely  on  sense 
and  soul,  how  transcendently  glorious  the  moment  when  it  is  lifted  from 
them,  and  they  awake  in  the  everlasting  light ! 

Such  are  the  thoughts  which  must  have  filled  many  minds  and  hearts,  as 
we  looked  on  that  serenely  beautiful  countenance  over  which  yesterday  we 
here  offered  our  prayers  and  thanksgivings. 

Professor  Peirce,  passing  from  us  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  official  connec- 
tion with  our  University,  had  a  longer  term  of  service  than  any  member  of 
the  academic  corps  from  the  foundation  of  the  College,  with  the  one  excep- 
tion of  the  venerable  Tutor  Flynt.  There  was  no  faint  prophecy  of  his  emi- 
nence in  the  families  from  which  he  sprang.  His  father  had  graduated  with 
the  first  honors  of  his  class,  and  in  his  latter  years  was  well  known  here  as 
of  no  less  rich  endowments  of  mind  than  surpassing  moral  worth.  His 


44 


mother  belonged  in  intellect  no  less  than  by  birth  to  a  family  distinguished 
for  ability  and  attainments,  and  was  the  sister  of  the  eminent  divine,  Rev. 
Dr.  Nichols,  who  was  second  to  no  man  of  his  time  in  vigorous  thought, 
lofty  ideality,  and  kindling  fervor  of  utterance,  and  who  possessed,  too,  a 
rare  capacity  and  love  for  mathematical  study  and  investigation.  Our  Pro- 
fessor, by  common  consent  unsurpassed  in  his  chosen  department,  has  not 
transcended  the  expectation  concerning  him  in  his  college  days,  when  his 
fellow-townsman  and  friend,  the  venerable  Bowditch,  foretold  of  the  boy  that 
he  would  be  the  first  mathematician  of  his  age.  His  fellow-teachers  here 
had  distinct  prescience  of  what  he  would  become,  when  his  tutorship  began. 
While  he  already  took  longer  steps  in  the  class-room  than  permitted  laggards 
to  keep  pace  with  him,  his  enthusiasm  inspired  scholars  of  the  higher  order, 
and  made  studies  that  had  before  been  a  weary  necessity  a  privilege  and  a 
joy.  His  earliest  text-books,  unequalled  in  their  kind,  marked  an  era  in  his 
department,  substituting  rigid  mathematical  processes  for  easier,  but  looser 
methods,  which  levied  on  the  mind  a  lighter  tax,  but  gave  in  return  a  much 
scantier  revenue.  In  the  second  year  of  his  tutorship  the  absence  of  Pro- 
fessor Farrar  left  him  at  the  head  of  his  department,  of  which  he  held  the 
direction  till  he  could  resign  it,  with  the  prestige  of  his  name  so  worthily 
maintained,  to  his  son,  of  kindred  taste  and  capacity. 

His  work  and  his  fame,  before  and  since,  have  been  world-wide.  The 
introductory  volume  of  his  "  Physical  and  Celestial  Mechanics "  few  have 
read,  because  few  could  read  it ;  but  by  those  few  it  has  been  regarded  as  the 
most  profound  and  thorough  and  enterprising  work  of  the  century,  opening 
vistas  of  speculation  and  research  which  may  give  direction  and  scope  for 
the  greatest  minds  of  coming  generations.  If  he  did  not  discover  the  planet 
Neptune,  he  did  more,  in  establishing,  with  the  ultimate  acquiescence  of  the 
scientific  world,  a  possible  alternative  solution  of  the  disturbances  of  Uranus. 

At  the  same  time,  his  practical  services  in  the  superintendence  of  the  Coast 
Survey  and  in  connection  with  the  Nautical  Almanac  have  proved  that  the 
highest  science  has  its  utilities  for  the  working-day  world,  and  can  bear  its 
indispensable  part  in  the  arts  most  essential  to  human  safety  and  well-being  ; 
nay,  that  nothing  short  of  this  in  thoroughness  and  accuracy  can  meet  the 
just  demands  of  an  advanced  civilization. 

Of  late  years  his  labors  as  an  instructor  have  been  nominally  small,  and 
for  very  few  pupils  ;  but  never  has  he  taught  so  efficiently,  or  with  results  so 
well  worthy  of  the  mind  and  heart  and  soul  which  he  has  put  into  his  work. 
His  students  have  been  inflamed  with  his  fervor,  stirred  to  high  ambition  by 


45 


his  earnest  appeals  to  every  noble  sentiment,  and  started  by  him,  not  on  the 
cold,  plodding  study  of  books,  but  on  the  vivid,  eager  pursuit  of  the  eternal 
truth  of  God,  of  which  the  signs  and  quantities  of  mathematics  are  the  sym- 
bols. There  are  in  other  universities,  as  in  our  own,  not  so  much  trained  as 
inspired  teachers,  who  owe  it  to  him  that  they  are  not  hearing  schoolboy  reci- 
tations, but  transmitting  a  living  science. 

Among  the  various  forms  of  his  activity,  emphatic  mention  should  be  made 
of  his  several  courses  of  lectures  open  to  a  larger  public  here  and  in  Boston. 
These  have  been  unique ;  and  I  doubt  whether  there  has  been  any  living  man 
who  could  have  approached  him  in  the  union  of  close  scientific  reasoning, 
bold  and  universe-sweeping  speculation,  poetic  fancy,  vivid  ideality,  and 
profound  religious  faith  and  reverence.  In  these  lectures  he  has  shown,  as 
he  always  felt  with  adoring  awe,  that  the  mathematician  enters  as  none  else 
can  into  the  intimate  thought  of  God,  sees  things  precisely  as  they  are  seen 
by  the  Infinite  Mind,  holds  the  scale  and  compasses  with  which  the  Eternal 
Wisdom  built  the  earth  and  meted  out  the  heavens. 

Indeed,  this  consciousness  has  pervaded  his  whole  scientific  life.  It  was 
active  in  his  early  youth,  as  his  co-evals  well  remember;  it  has  gathered 
strength  with  his  years ;  it  struck  the  ever  recurring  key-note  in  his  latest 
public  utterances.  He  was  a  devout,  God-fearing  man,  —  a  Christian,  in  the 
whole  aim,  tenor,  and  habit  of  his  life.  This, — from  early,  I  might  almost 
say  native,  feeling,  and  equally  from  faithful  inquiry  and  established  convic- 
tion. He  was  conversant  with  the  phases  of  scientific  infidelity,  and  by  no 
means  unfamiliar  with  the  historic  grounds  of  scepticism.  Nor  can  I  regard 
it  as  without  profound  significance,  that  a  mind  second  to  none  in  keen  intui- 
tion, in  aesthetic  sensibility,  in  imaginative  fervor,  and  in  the  capacity  of  close 
and  cogent  reasoning,  maintained  through  life  an  unshaken  belief  and  trust 
in  the  power,  providence,  and  love  of  God,  as  beheld  in  his  works,  and  as  in- 
carnate in  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 

There  is  no  need  that  I  speak  here  of  his  pure,  upright,  faithful  life.  In 
this,  as  in  his  scientific  genius,  the  youth  was  "father  of  the  man."  We  who 
were  conversant  with  his  boyhood  have  not  the  slightest  remembrance  of 
aught  that  was  not  in  beautiful  harmony  with  what  he  has  been  in  these  later 
years,  when  to  know  him  has  been  to  love,  admire,  and  revere. 

He  has  gone  from  us,  not  too  soon  for  him  to  enter  on  those  larger,  loftier 
fields  of  vision,  whose  forecast  glories  shed  a  light  not  of  earth  on  his  ad- 
vancing years,  but,  were  it  not  that  God  knows  best  when  to  call  his  children 
home,  we  should  say,  far  too  soon  for  us ;  for,  before  the  brief  shadow  fell 


upon  him,  he  seemed  still  in  the  full  meridian  of  his  life-day.  It  has  been 
no  rare  experience  to  miss  the  brightest  of  a  galaxy.  But  now,  our  one  par- 
ticular star  is  quenched.  Be  it  ours  to  cherish  the  honored  name  so  redolent 
of  genius  and  eloquence,  of  social  worth  and  civic  virtue,  of  Christian  faith 
and  piety.  And  in  that  nearer  circle  in  which  the  precious  memories  of  our 
friend  are  now  so  laden  with  the  fresh  sorrow  of  bereavement,  may  they  all 
be  transformed  into  hopes  full  of  immortality,  as  they  cluster  around  the 
home  where  God  in  his  own  good  time  shall  gather  the  parted  family,  and 
where  "there  shall  be  no  more  death"  ! 


47 


SERMON.1 

BY   THE    REV.   THOMAS    HILL,    D.D.,  LL.D. 

"The  Lord  giveth  wisdom;  out  of  his  mouth  cometh  knowledge  and  understanding."  — 
PROV.  ii.  6. 

THE  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  literature  is  its  piety;  its  recognition  of 
one  God,  the  Creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  from  whom  alone  cometh 
every  good  gift,  and  by  whose  inspiration  alone  man  has  wisdom,  strength, 
and  righteousness. 

Another  marked  feature  in  these  ancient  writings  is  the  recognition  of  the 
true  relation  of  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  righteousness;  that  they  stand  in 
this  order ;  that  knowledge  is  the  lowest,  it  is  the  foundation  on  which 
wisdom  builds,  while  righteousness  is  the  highest;  that  wisdom  has  not 
builded  worthy  of  her  name  until  she  has  built  an  altar  for  daily  worship  and 
daily  renewal  of  self-consecration  to  God's  service.  In  the  text  we  have 
three  words  indicating  this  gradation  :  the  Lord  giveth  wisdom  ;  out  of  his 
mouth  cometh  knowledge  and  understanding.  The  word  translated  knowl- 
edge has  precisely  that  force :  it  is  knowledge  gained  through  experience ; 
that  translated  understanding  signifies  knowledge  gained  by  reflection,  or 
insight ;  and  that  translated  wisdom  refers  to  the  hidden  power  of  using 
knowledge  and  insight  in  the  guidance  of  life. 

These  distinctions  are  deep  and  subtle:  the  wisest  philosophers  puzzle 
over  them  in  this  nineteenth  century  after  Christ,  as  they  did  in  the  ninth 
century  before  Christ,  and  come  to  no  universal  agreement.  But,  subtle  as 
the  distinctions  are,  they  are  so  deep  that  no  man  can  refuse  to  perceive 
their  existence.  In  these  ancient  Hebrew  writings,  they  are  clearly  alluded 
to,  and  every  humble  reader  of  his  Bible  has  a  more  or  less  clear  perception 
of  the  meaning  of  the  allusions.  The  doctrine  of  the  text  is  accepted,  with 
more  or  less  understanding  of  its  import,  by  every  devout  Christian. 

What  is  the  doctrine  ?  It  is  that  our  Maker  has  endowed  us  with  three 
principal  intellectual  powers  :  First,  the  power  of  external  perception,  —  the 

1  Preached  in  the  First  Parish  Church,  Portland,  Me.,  Sunday  morning,  Oct.  10. 


power,  that  is,  of  seeing,  hearing,  feeling,  the  things  about  us.  By  this  we 
gain  a  knowledge  of  the  sun  and  stars,  the  earth  and  its  myriad  plants  and 
animals,  the  boundless  space  in  which  it  moves,  and  the  endless  time  in 
which  it  pursues  its  revolutions.  Secondly,  the  power  of  insight ;  by  which 
we  know  what  is  going  on  in  the  depths  of  our  own  souls,  our  modes  of 
knowledge,  our  states  of  feeling,  the  struggles  of  desire  and  of  will,  the  exist- 
ence of  a  moral  law,  the  evidences  of  God's  being,  the  reality  of  our  rela- 
tions to  Him.  Thirdly,  the  power  of  guiding  and  directing  our  own  thought 
and  action  into  a  voluntary  conformity  to  the  moral  law,  into  a  voluntary 
service  of  God  by  his  children. 

These  are  the  three  great  intellectual  gifts  of  knowledge,  understanding, 
and  wisdom,  which  in  the  text  are  said  to  proceed  from  the  Lord.  Each  one 
of  the  three  is  capable  of  a  very  great,  an  almost  endless,  diversity  of  degrees 
and  of  variations,  so  that  different  minds  are  fitted  for  different  offices  and 
functions.  This  has  been  observed  by  both  heathen  and  Christian  writers  in 
all  ages  of  the  world,  and  is  especially  dwelt  upon  by  the'  Apostle  Paul. 
Every  honest  and  earnest  man  finds  some  occupation  which  is  agreeable  to 
him,  for  which  he  is  fitted,  and  in  which  he  is  useful  to  his  fellow-men.  It 
may  be  that  there  is,  in  some  cases,  great  difficulty  in  actually  getting  this 
occupation ;  but  the  rule  is  generally  true  that  a  man  recognizes  it  when 
found. 

And  in  the  midst  of  these  diversities  of  operations  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
there  are  some  who  receive  ten  talents,  some  who.  receive  but  one.  The  un- 
disciplined and  foolish  man  may  sometimes  repine  and  murmur  because  he 
has  not  received  greater  gifts :  he  is  envious  of  another  man's  genius,  and 
soured  by  his  own  failures  when  he  attempts  that  which  is  too  high  for  him. 
The  disciplined  and  wise  man  will,  however,  rejoice  always  in  his  own  lot, 
knowing  that  the  good  Lord  who  assigned  us  these  various  parts  has  it  in 
his  power,  and  in  his  heart,  to  cause  all  things  to  work  out  a  compensation 
and  a  recompense  for  every  seeming  evil.  If  a  man  has  less  ability  to  in- 
crease knowledge,  he  has  usually  less  capacity  also  for  suffering :  great  gifts 
of  power  increase  responsibility,  care,  and  labor.  Fidelity  to  one's  own  op- 
portunities, faithfulness  in  one's  own  duties,  trust  in  the  Divine  Providence 
which  orders  one's  own  lot,  meek  acceptance  of  the  offers  of  salvation  made 
by  Jesus  to  each  child  of  man,  —  these  things  bring  into  the  humblest  heart 
the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  understanding.  . 

And  the  man  of  smaller  gifts  will,  if  he  be  wise,  rejoice  and  be  thankful 
for  the  gifts  bestowed  more  abundantly  upon  the  chosen  few.  Pass  by,  if  you 


49 


will,  the  consideration  of  Him  upon  whom  the  Spirit  was  poured  without 
measure,  and  to  whom  we  are  under  obligations  far  exceeding  all  our  powers 
of  expression  :  what  Christian  soul  is  there  who  is  not  thankful  that  the 
saint  of  eagle  wing  heard  in  Patmos  those  promises  of  unspeakable  tender- 
ness recorded  by  him  for  us,  — soared  unto  heaven,  and  heard  the  Word  which 
was  in  the  beginning,  and  which  assures  to  us  salvation  ?  Who  does  not 
give  thanks  for  the  inspiration  which  made  Saul  of  Tarsus  the  great  apostle 
to  the  Gentiles,  proclaiming  to  all  ages  and  to  all  classes  of  men  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ  ?  And  time  would  fail  me  to  add  to  Barnabas's 
list  of  ancient  worthies  the  longer  list  of  those  who  through  nearly  nineteen 
centuries  of  Christendom  have  through  faith  wrought  righteousness,  and 
kindled  saving  and  sanctifying  faith  in  generation  after  generation  of  ordinary 
believers. 

The  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New  requires  also  in  our  grati- 
tude to  the  Lord,  the  inspirer  of  all  wisdom,  knowledge,  and  understanding, 
to  remember  that  he  gave  all  those  inspirations  by  which  the  arts  and  sciences, 
the  manufactures  and  commerce  of  the  world,  have  grown  unto  their  present 
condition.  The  space-penetrating  power  of  a  great  telescope  is  not  so  valu- 
able as  the  prophetic  vision  w^hich  sees  the  deep  things  of  God  :  yet  it  is 
of  incalculable  value  ;  and  we  may  thank  God,  that,  through  his  inspiration  of 
those  who  form  and  combine  its  lenses,  we  all  become  more  intelligent  and 
willing  worshippers  of  his  immeasurable  majesty  and  power.  The  creative 
genius  of  the  great  poets  and  writers  of  fiction  —  Milton  and  Bunyan,  Shak- 
speare  and  Tennyson  —  is  not  so  valuable  as  the  terrible  power  with  which  Paul 
lays  bare  the  hideous  recesses  of  a  sinful  heart,  or  as  the  sublime  force  with 
which  John  lifts  us  up  into  the  bosom  in  which  he  lay  ;  and  yet  thousands  of 
Christian  souls  thank  God  also  for  the  "Paradise  Regained,"  and  for  "The 
Holy  War,"  for  the  wonderful  historic  dramas  and  tragedies,  for  the  subtly 
woven  threnodies,  which  have  been  the  vehicles  of  morality  and  religion  and 
strength  and  wisdom  to  millions  of  readers.  What  Christian  heart  can  refuse 
its  tribute  of  gratitude  also  to  Him  who  inspired  the  sweet  singers  of  our 
Christian  Israel,  with  psalms  that  vie  with  those  of  David,  and  with  strains 
of  music  that  waft  the  hearer  into  the  presence  of  the  heavenly  choirs  ? 
Who  can  measure  the  effect  on  the  world,  in  softening  the  rude  and  savage 
manners  of  former  ages,  of  those  wondrous  religious  pictures,  especially  of 
the  holy  mother  and  her  matchless  child,  which  even  to-day  draw  pilgrims 
from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  behold  them  ? 

But  we  are  sometimes  told,  and  are  sometimes  for  a  moment  half  afraid  it 


may  be  true,  that  the  day  of  religious  art.  and  religious  music,  and  religious 
literature  is  over.  The  star  which  arose  in  the  East,  it  is  said,  has  passed  to 
its  setting  in  the  West ;  and  now  there  arises,  out  of  the  West,  a  star  brighter 
than  the  star  of  Bethlehem, — the  star  of  science,  which  is  to  disenchant  us 
of  all  our  old  reverence  and  faith.  It  is  to  reveal  to  us  the  unreality  of  every 
thing  on  which  faith  has  built,  and  make  clear  to  us  that  this  world  of  sense 
is  the  only  real  world,  and  that  death  is  the  end  of  all  our  life ;  that  even 
our  human  race  is  to  be  swept  away  into  utter  nothingness,  eternal  silence 
and  eternal  frost. 

It  requires  but  an  instant's  attention  to  recognize  this  as  the  same  strain 
which  has  been  repeated  to  us  from  the  left  for  as  many  centuries  as  litera- 
ture records.  It  can  win  attention  and  belief  only  by  first  diverting  our  at- 
tention from  understanding  and  wisdom,  and  fastening  it  exclusively  on 
knowledge.  It  is  not  the  voice  of  science,  but  only  the  voice  of  unwise 
scientific  men.  The  great  increase  of  knowledge,  the  marvellous  progress  of 
the  physical  sciences  during  the  last  three-quarters  of  a  century,  has  fulfilled 
the  saying  of  the  preacher,  "  He  that  increaseth  knowledge  increaseth 
sorrow."  Many  men  who  have  attained  a  large  knowledge  of  the  movements 
of  matter  in  the  building  of  plants  and  animals,  fancy  themselves  thereby 
qualified  to  speak  with  authority  concerning  questions  of  metaphysics  and 
theology  ;  and  they  utter  themselves  in  these  doleful  denials  of  the  realities 
of  our  Christian  faith.  At  the  same  time,  by  their  activity  in  matters  of 
scientific  publication,  they  give  to  the  public  the  impression  that  they  are 
leaders  in  science  ;  and  thus  their  gloomy  denials  of  religious  wisdom  have 
the  more  disheartening  effect  on  the  public  mind. 

The  evil  will  be  temporary.  The  Lord  giveth  wisdom,  and  out  of  his 
mouth  cometh  knowledge  and  understanding.  The  real  leaders  in  science, 
the  master  spirits,  to  whom  all  three  gifts  of  intellectual  power  are  vouch- 
safed in  due  proportion,  and  each  in  large  measure,  are  to-day,  as  they  have 
been  in  all  past  ages,  men  of  faith,  of  devout  and  religious  spirit,  recognizing 
God  as  the  Creator,  finding  in  all  their  study  of  His  works  that  there  is  not 
an  atom  in  the  universe  which  does  not  bear  indelible  evidences  of  the 
wisdom  and  goodness  of  the  Almighty  Power  which  formed  it. 

We  laid  yesterday  in  the  grave  the  body  of  one  who  has  long  been  recog- 
nized, both  in  Europe  and  America,  as  a  man  of  extensive  learning  and  of  the 
highest  genius.  Some  of  his  triumphs  in  the  realm  of  mathematics  and  as- 
tronomy have  been  as  sublime  as  those  of  any  man  among  the  living  or  the 
dead.  His  vigorous  powers  have  until  within  a  year  past  shown  no  signs 


of  enfeebling  age.  Yet  Peirce  was,  like  his  teacher  Bowditch,  like  his  friends 
Agassiz  and  Henry,  and  others  who  have  recently  preceded  him  into  the 
world  of  greater  light,  a  man  of  the  most  devout  Christian  faith.  We  may  say 
of  him,  "  he  walked  with  God,  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took  him."  He  is 
not  dead,  and  cannot  die.  The  immortality  of  fame  which  his  works  secure 
him  is  but  a  faint  penumbra  of  that  brilliant  glory  into  which  his  conscious 
spirit  has  ascended.  God  was  to  him  the  only  reality ;  this  world  was  always 
to  him  God's  schoolhouse,  furnished  with  the  choicest  text-books  and  appar- 
atus ;  and  he. was  ever  desirous  of  receiving  the  Master's  approval.  The 
universe,  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  "is  a  wonderful* philosophical  combina- 
tion of  ideas,  a  problem  for  science  to  solve.  What  is  science  but  the  partial 
revelation  of  the  harmony  of  those  ideas,  of  the  harmony  and  self-consistence 
of  God's  thought  ? "  At  other  times  his  understanding  (in  the  sense  of  my 
text)  would  speak,  and  he  would  say  that  the  universe  is  a  poem,  history  a 
drama,  for  the  instruction  and  uplifting  of  every  reader. 

Those  of  my  hearers  who  enjoyed  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Peirce's 
maternal  uncle,  the  former  revered  and  beloved  pastor  of  this  parish,  Dr. 
Ichabod  Nichols,  may  understand  something  of  that  swelling  gratitude  too 
deep  for  words  which  struggles  within  me  as  I  remember  how  much  I  have 
owed  during  the  past  forty-one  years  to  the  influence  of  this  nephew,  partak- 
ing as  he  did  in  so  many  of  his  uncle's  noblest  qualities. 

Alas  !  that  he  shared  also  in  some  of  Dr.  Nichols's  limitations  ;  notably  in 
this,  that  neither  of  them  left  in  legible  form  enough  to  show  to  the  next 
generation  the  full  reasons  why,  in  their  own  day,  they  inspired  their  contem- 
poraries with  such  unlimited  confidence  and  love. 

In  Peirce's  case,  however,  enough  has  been  published  during  his  lifetime 
to  secure  him  a  permanent  place  in  the  "literature  of  mathematics,  astronomy, 
and  geodesy ;  although  not  enough  to  show  the  exalted  character  of  his 
imagination,  the  wonderful  power  of  his  eloquence,  the  burning  force  of  his 
moral  rebukes,  the  great  versatility  of  his  genius,  the  quickness  of  his  obser- 
vation, the  electric  rapidity  of  his  mental  operations.  The  walk  of  a  mathe- 
matician of  so  high  an  order  is  peculiarly  lonely:  he  roams  among  Alpine 
heights  which  "vulgar  feet  have  never  trod,"  the  paths  that  are  "sacred  to 
thought  and  God." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  translate  into  ordinary  forms  of  language,  even 
the  results,  much  more  the  processes,  by  which  he  attains  certainty  on  ques- 
tions which  lie  far  beyond  the  reach  of  all  usual  methods  of  reasoning. 
Peirce  has  rendered  to  the  pure  mathematics,  to  geometry,  to  astronomy,  to 


5- 


botany  and  zoology,  to  geography  and  geology,  even  to  logic,  metaphysics, 
and  theology,  valuable  services,  some  of  which  must  be  held  in  everlasting 
remembrance.  No  man  would  select  from  among  the  successors  of  Descartes, 
Leibnitz,  and  Newton,  twenty  names  of  those  who  had  shown  the  greatest 
genius  in  pure  mathematics,  down  to  the  year  1875,  without  including  Pcirce. 
Even  the  reader  who  knows  nothing  of  pure  mathematics  must  admire  the 
wonderful  genius  and  the  sublime  self-knowledge  of  the  man,  who,  when  all 
the  scientific  world  was  rapt  in  admiration  of  Leverrier,  the  creator  of  in- 
visible astronomy,  who  had  said  to  Galle,  "  Point  your  telescope  to  such  a 
spot,  and  you  shall  see  a  planet  never  yet  beheld  by  mortal  eye,  but  revealed 
to  me  by  the  eye  of  faith  guided  by  mathesis,"  calmly  said,  "Leverrier  de- 
serves all  praise  as  a  mathematician,  but  Galle's  discovery  is  only  a  happy 
accident :  Leverrier's  planet  does  not  exist,  and  the  planet  seen  by  Galle  is 
an  entirely  different  body."  Edward  Everett,  then  president  of  the  Academy, 
asked  Peirce  to  withhold  his  remark  from  publication,  saying  that  no  words 
could  express  the  improbability  of  his  statement.  "But,"  replied  Peirce, 
"it  is  still  more  improbable  that  there  can  be  an  error  in  my  calculations." 
Time  has  long  since  demonstrated  that  our  American  geometer  was  right. 

A  few  weeks  after  this  great  mathematical  triumph  I  met,  in  State  Street, 
Boston,  the  historian  Jared  Sparks,  and  he  remarked  to  me  that  he  con- 
sidered Leverrier's  calculation,  and  Galle's  discovery,  among  the  most  im- 
portant events  in  all  recorded  history.  The  effect,  said  he,  upon  the  general 
human  mind,  will  be  enormous,  in  the  confidence  which  it  will  produce,  the 
impulse  which  it  will  give  to  every  department  of  science.  Wonderfully  has 
this  prediction  of  President  Sparks  been  fulfilled  ! 

A  yet  more  remarkable  prediction  by  Peirce  still  remains  unfulfilled,  and 
ages  may  pass  before  even  its  partial  accomplishment.  About  ten  years  ago 
some  papers  of  his  were  published  by  the  generosity  of  a  few  of  his  friends 
and  pupils.  They  contained  an  investigation  of  sixty  or  seventy  kinds  of 
mathematical  language,  that  is.  of  sixty  or  seventy  kinds  of  algebra,  a  dozen 
or  more  of  which  were  very  simple.  All  these  kinds  were  discovered  by 
him  in  his  er.f  eavor  to  answer  the  question,  What  conditions  must  be  ful- 
filled by  any  algebra?  In  solving  this  question  he  confined  himself  under 
some  restrictions,  so  as  to  narrow  the  field,  and  even  then  found  the  multi- 
tude of  algebras,  that  is,  of  mathematical  languages,  which  I  have  mentioned. 
Of  these,  only  three  had  ever  been  used  by  mathematicians ;  those  three  had 
given  employment  to  men  of  genius  for  centuries  ;  those  three  had  led  to  all 
the  marvellous  triumphs  of  the  science  of  this  nineteenth  century ;  the  others 


53 


must  be  considered  as  prophecies  of  the  methods  which  may,  in  coming 
centuries,  be  used  in  the  investigation  of  physical  truth. 

Nature,  says  Emerson,  never  becomes  a  toy  to  a  wise  spirit.  In  the  works 
of  God  are  hidden  unfathomable  depths  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  And  it 
was  Peirce's  faith,  that  whatever  mathematical  truth  men  reach  by  a  priori 
reasoning,  by  researches  such  as  these  wonderful  ones  of  his,  will,  at  some 
future  day,  in  this  life,  or  in  that  higher  life  into  which  he  has  entered,  be 
found  to  have  been  foreknown  and  used  by  that  Divine  Architect  who  in- 
spires the  mathematician  as  he  does  the  poet  and  the  prophet.  Peirce 
believed,  with  all  his  heart,  that  in  consecrating  himself  to  science  he  was 
consecrating  himself  to  God.  God's  service  was  his  highest  aim.  When  in 
my  younger  days  he  judged  too  favorably  of  his  pupil's  mathematical  and 
scientific  ability,  he  wanted  me  to  enter  the  field  of  astronomy.  But  "  the 
yoke  of  conscience  masterful"  drove  me  into  the  pulpit;  and  it  was  a  great 
happiness  to  me  afterward  to  have  him  indorse  my  decision,  and  earnestly 
wish  me  success  in  my  calling.  None  of  you  can  be  more  keenly  and  pain- 
fully aware  than  I  am  myself  of  my  defects  and  failures,  both  as  a  pastor  and 
preacher ;  but  none  of  you  can  know,  as  I  know,  how  much  of  whatever 
benefit  or  satisfaction  you  may  have  received  from  my  ministrations  has  been 
due,  under  the  Divine  Providence,  to  the  cordial  way  in  which  Peirce  rejoiced 
over  my  entrance  upon  the  field  of  his  revered  and  beloved  uncle's  labors. 
His  sympathy  and  approval,  his  agreement  with  me  in  religious  opinions,  has 
been  strength  and  inspiration  to  me  from  the  clay  of  my  ordination,  nearly 
thirty-five  years  ago,  to  the  present  hour.  Pardon  me,  therefore,  that  I  thus 
speak  out  of  a  full  heart  concerning  a  friend  whom  the  Lord  had  gifted  so 
richly  with  knowledge,  with  understanding,  and  with  religious  wisdom. 
He  was  not  simply  a  mathematician :  he  was  a  man  interested  in  almost 
every  thing  of  human  interest;  reading  the  literature  of  the  past  and  of 
the  present  with  appreciative  but  discriminating  eye.  If  perchance  his 
judgment  differed  from  that  of  the  public,  it  was  nevertheless  sustained 
by  good  reasons.  For  example,  among  the  classic  work's  of  the  English 
writers  Milton  and  Eunyan,  he  always  preferred  the  "  Paradise  Regained" 
to  the  "Paradise  Lost,"  "The  Holy  War"  to  the  "Pilgrim's  Progress," 
as  having  much  more  satisfactory  unity  in  themselves,  and  thus  being 
more  truly  works  of  art ;  and  also,  as  being  much  more  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  genuine  spirit  and  temper  of  the  Master  of  the  Christian  Church. 
This  was  what  chiefly  interested  him  and  warmed  his  heart.  He  had  no  in- 
terest in  the  technical  discussions  of  theology;  the  minutiae  of  Scriptural 


54 


criticism  were  dry  to  him.  But  his  heart  was  moved  by  the  grandeur  of  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis,  his  conscience  responded  to  the  second  and  third 
chapters,  his  moral  judgment  pronounced  a  reverent  amen  to  the  Ten  Com. 
mandments,  and  his  whole  spiritual  nature  rejoiced  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  He  thought  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  carried  in  itself  the  evidence  of 
its  divine  origin  ;  he  bowed  with  reverent  and  rejoicing  faith  at  the  foot  of 
the  Cross  ;  and  declared  that  in  the  very  construction  of  the  human  heart,  the 
dread  sacrifice  on  Calvary  was  prefigured  and  required.  Science  had  not, 
in  his  view,  completed  her  task  until  she  had  led  man  to  God;  knowledge 
must  be  followed  by  insight,  and  insight  by  that  religious  wisdom  which  will 
infallibly  show  the  divine  beauty  of  Jesus  and  the  necessity  of  his  messages 
of  reconciling  mercy  ;  sin  was  the  one  great  sorrow  of  the  universe,  and 
Christ  the  only  adequate  Consoler. 

May  our  meditations  upon  the  example  of  this  disciple  lead  each  of  us, 
also,  to  the  Master  in  whose  promises  he  humbly  trusted  and  found  rest ! 


55 


SERMON.1 

BY   THE    REV.    C.    A.    BARTOL,    D.D. 

"  He  telleth  the  number  of  the  stars;  he  calleth  them  all  by  their  names." — Ps.  cxlvii..4. 

WHILE  we  resume  in  various  ways,  how  Nature,  one  after  another,  resumes 
us !  Several  funerals  have  lately  called  my  attention  :  first,  that  of  the 
Norse  minstrel,  at  seventy  still  a  child,  a  rare  nature  in  the  volume  of  being, 
as  grammarians  say  of  certain  expressions  in  the  Bible  that  they  are  spoken 
but  once  ;  next,  of  a  four-months'  babe,  ripening  and  falling  from  the  tree  of 
life  like  those  blossoms  that  bring  forth  fruit  on  the  boughs,  and  bearing  the 
honored  name  of  that  great  lawyer  and  Christian  patriot  Charles  Greeley 
Loring,  dying  in  the  same  room,  on  the  same  day  and  almost  the  same  hour 
of  the  calendar,  thirteen  years  after  his  grandfather,  as  though  he  had  by 
him  been  called ;  lastly,  that  of  the  astronomer  and  mathematician  whose 
demise  will  produce  a  sensation  in  scientific  circles  throughout  the  world,  as 
all  the  pines  in  the  wood  resound  when  some  monarch  of  the  forest  falls. 
Death  is  called  in  the  book  of  Job  "  disorderly,"  because  its  order  is  too 
deep  for  us  to  trace.  But  Nature  is  impartial,  and  lays  no  stress  on  the 
decease  of  king,  president,  or  pope.  She  loves  the  babe  as  much  as  she 
does  them.  Goethe  represents  her  as  saying  of  Shakspeare,  "  He  is  a  tid-bit ; 
I  will  take  him  last,"  his  literary  fame  being  co-eval  with  the  scriptures  of 
Judasa  or  Greece  ;  but  by  the  wavering  leaf  of  infancy,  or  crashing  oak  that 
may  figure  transcendent  genius  or  virtue,  Nature  is  alike  unmoved.  The 
storm  that  rattled  the  windows  of  the  houses  at  Cromwell's  departure, 
and  the  veil  rent  and  darkened  land  when  Jesus  expired,  were  only  seized 
upon  by  friends  as  signifying  the  importance  of  these  men,"  great  in  different 
spheres.  We  emphasize,  but  Nature  writes  nothing  in  italics  :  she  holds  on 
her  even  way.  The  termination  of  the  humblest  career  tears  some  heart- 
string  ;  and,  when  some  highly  honored  personage  disappears,  we  try  with 
our  words  to  blow  the  trumpet  of  his  fame ;  but  as  we  leave  the  loud  plat- 
form or  solemn  desk,  and  come  out  into  the  air,  the  open  sky  with  its  vast 

1    Preached  in  the  West  Church,  Boston,  Sunday  morning,  Oct.  17. 


inverted  cup  has  no  word,  only  a  smile,  for  all  our  gesture  and  speech.'  Yet 
when  I  see  the  beauty  of  this  border  and  fringe  of  the  universe,  the  leaves 
at  this  season  turning  to  crimson,  coral,  and  yellow  gold  ere  they  drop,  let  no 
sceptic  tell  me  it  is  superstition  to  believe  that  a  Higher  than  we  causes  and 
delights  in  these  charms,  and  angels  innumerable  and  unseen  give  us  in  our 
transport  a  share  of  their  ecstasy. 

You  will  understand  it  is  the  religious  character  of  Benjamin  Peirce,  —  the 
great  professor,  —  of  whom  I  am  to  speak,  that  prompts  such  reflections  for 
the  fit  preface  and  tenor  of  any  true  history  of  his  course.  His  merits  in  that 
field  of  calculation  so  few  are  able  to  enter,  among  the  stars,  being  unable  to 
measure,  I  must  leave  to  a  jury  of  his  peers,  among  whom  he  stood  in  the 
first  rank,  at  Paris  and  Berlin  as  well  as  Washington  and  as  well  as  Boston. 
What  in  him  fixes  my  thought,  and  concerns  us  all,  is  his  moral  example, 
and  his  contribution  in  his  convictions  to  Christian  faith. 

"  An  uridevout  astronomer  is  mad." 

But  how  few  ministers  and  communicants  in  regular  standing  were  as  devout 
as  he  !  He  belonged  to  the  same  class  of  minds  with  Newton,  Kepler, 
Swedenborg,  Plato,  and  all  philosophers  of  supreme  influence  and  repute, 
in  whom  keen  perception  and  worshipful  feeling  are  combined.  The  students 
of  phenomena,  of  the  symptoms  in  the  creation  or  any  of  its  parts,  may  be 
atheistic,  as  physicians  and  physical  observers  have  sometimes  been ;  but 
Professor  Peirce  was  one  of  those  who  take  the  spiritual  into  their  view.  He 
was  a  second-sighted,  double-sighted,  or  binocular  man.  His  observation 
never  stuck  in  the  material  facts,  or  stopped  short  of  the  principle.  If  he 
did  not  conceive  of  laws  as  given  or  made  at  any  period  of  time,  he  beheld 
them  inhering  in  an  Infinite  One,  eternal  and  alive,  whom  he  could  love  and 
adore.  Therefore  I  single  out  and  point  to  this  dear  and  revered  soul, 
in  the  service  of  our  Cambridge  University  and  of  our  intellectual  society 
for  so  many  years,  as  one  that  was  never  swamped  in  the  "worse  than 
Serbonian  bog "  of  the  materialism  that  has  in  the  last  generation  so 
invaded  some  of  the  European  and  other  schools,  but  rose  ever  into  the 
heaven  of  personal  verities,  of  which  the  ethereal  orbits  he  loved  to  contem- 
plate were  to  him  but  types.  He  was  a  scientist,  if  any  one  deserves  that 
name,  but  a  philosopher  too,  and  rather  of  the  ideal  than  utilitarian  stamp  ; 
for  although  not  blind  to  the  benefits  of  science,  more  than  was  „  Francis 
Bacon,  or  is  the  last  machinist  or  engineer,  understanding  perfectly  how 
ships  are  guided  by  hints  from  the  starry  sweep  through  the  firmament, 


which  he  himself  surveyed  at  midnight  more  than  at  noonday,  and  how  they 
are  guarded  from  destruction  by  the  Coast  Survey,  on  which  with  the  la- 
mented Bache  he  was  engaged,  to  save  many  a  vessel  from  wreck  by  show- 
ing every  rock  and  quicksand  more  precisely  on  the  chart,  he  yet  had  and 
would  share  with  others  the  more  intense  and  immortal  joy  of  purely  con- 
templating the  truth  which  is,  in  its  own  glory,  divinely  good.  In  phyllotaxy, 
or  that  special  arrangement  of  the  stems  on  a  plant  which  the  planets  in  the 
solar  system  repeat,  in  immense  and  splendid  illustration  of  the  same  law,  he 
had  a  pleasure  which  air  the  harvests  of  the  field  could  not  afford.  Having 
heard  a  fine  oration  on  the  importance  of  business  and  business  men  in  the 
economy  of  life,  he  insisted  on  making  the  balance  true  by  putting  the  ideal 
element  of  pure  thought  in  the  other  scale.  Who  that  heard  but  must  have 
admired  his  address  at  the  Chestnut-street  Club,  in  which  he  likened  the 
spinning  of  the  stars  to  that  of  an  earthly  parent's  twirling  a  top  for  the 
amusement  of  his  little  boy,  thus  taking  up  a  wooden  toy  into  the  solar  spaces 
and  Milky  Way  where  the  Father  of  all  fatherhood  launches  the  mighty  orbs 
from  their  centre  to  please  his  offspring,  as  the  balls  immeasurable  and  im- 
ponderable by  man  whirl  around  on  the  ethereal  floor  ?  If,  he  said,  in  a 
nebula  or  fire-mist  was  the  origin  of  the  sun  and  all  his  attendant  primaries 
and  satellites,  the  nebula  itself  was  no  vague,  void,  and  thoughtless  sub- 
stance, but  had  a  plan,  and  involved  all  in  it  that  was  to  be  evolved  out  of  it, 
as  much  as  an  acorn  or  an  egg.  That  great  thinker,  Chauncey  Wright, 
considered  the  past  and  future  of  the  outward  universe  so  uncertain  and 
indeterminable,  —  that  is,  he  was  so  anti-dogmatic,  with  all  his  wisdom  and 
profound  insight,  —  that  he  called  the  whole  cosmic  weather,  like  the  changing, 
unpredictable  clouds  and  winds.  Peirce  saw  the  stability,  mid  all  the  shift- 
ing, in  the  immutable  mind  of  God,  of  which,  as  the  Rock  of  Ages,  he  was 
glad  humbly  to  speak.  If  to  his  exposition  of  the  laws  of  light  and  motion 
objection  was  made,  he  had  no  ambition  to  reply,  but  had  an  unperturbed 
dignity  in  resting  on  and  trusting  in  the  truth.  Said  the  sublime  discoverer 
Kepler,  "  I  think  God's  thoughts  after  him."  Peirce,  with  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  was  conscious  of  the  rapture  of  feeling  God  had  thought  his  human 
thoughts  before  him,  and  that,  in  some  sense,  the  Everlasting  One  had 
weighed  and  meted  out  the  globes  and  their  huge  ellipses,  even  as  does  the 
mortal  investigator,  however  feebly  tfie  latter  follows  the  wisdom  and  love 
that  presided  at  the  genesis  and  birth  of  all. 

It  is  this  reverent  quality  in  Benjamin  Peirce  which  is  the  motive  of  my 
discourse,  and  without  which  none  of  his  surpassing  attainments  in  his  explo- 


ration,  by  numbers,  of  the  constitution  of  things  would  induce  me  to  celebrate 
him  in  this  place  ;  and  I  am  incited  by  this  character  of  his  mind  because,  in 
my  judgment,  by  the  temporary  setting-in  of  materialism  in  speculators  of 
the  contentious  and  imperious  sort,  we  are  likely,  if  but  for  a  while,  to  be  put 
back  in  all  those  immaterial  values  that  distinguish  and  ennoble  our  nature. 
The  oration,  last  summer,  of  Dr.  Storrs  at  Cambridge  showed  us  the  "  more 
excellent  way."  Nevertheless,  the  main  ten:'ency,  the  current  theory  (for  it 
is  theory,  and  not  Socratically  reasoned  truth)  runs  otherwise,  and  would 
inform  or  convince  us  that  all  comes  up  from  the  earth,  and  that  there  is  no 
heaven  but  this  external  sky  whence  aught  can  come  clown.  Even  the  spirits 
materialize  in  the  dusky  circles  now  !  Like  the  silt  and  deposit,  by  which 
lakes  and  creeks  are  filled  up  yonder,  and  the  ocean  slowly  retires  from  the 
coast,  so  a  grosser  element  is  the  mental  sand  or  mud  by  which  the  river  of 
God  is  made  shallow,  and  the  old  sea  of  faith  and  truth  pushed  back,  to  send 
no  more  tidings  to  dwellers  in  these  earthly  bounds.  The  idol  of  experience 
is  put  for  the  deity  of  spirit  and  life.  "In  matter,"  says  Mr.  Tyndall,  "we 
see  the  promise  and  potency  of  all  the  forms  of  life."  But  whence,  save 
from  an  original,  essential,  and  boundless  life  or  being,  arose  the  possibility 
of  any  and  all  the  living  forms  ?  Which,  matter  or  spirit,  is  first,  highest, 
best?  or  are  they  simultaneous  and  but  diverse  names  of  the  same  thing? 
In  this  discussion,  the  lists  drawn  and  the  battle  set,  Peirce  did  not  hesitate, 
but  took  unequivocally  and  fervently  the  spiritual  side.  After  listening  to 
him  for  an  hour,  who  but  was  persuaded  of  the  superiority  of  mind,  of  reason, 
of  love,  to  all  else,  and  that  nought,  as  he  instructed  us,  could  get  beyond  the 
beauty  and  power  of  a  child's  prayer  taught  by  a  mother  at  her  little  one's 
cot  or  crib  ?  I  own,  for  one,  I  was  refreshed  and  cheered  out  of  all  despond- 
ency or  distrust  by  this  pattern  of  a  man  whose  idea  and  whose  self  was  an 
overweight  for  all  the  tremendous  spheres  that  had  been  the  theme  of  his 
lucid  and  familiar  talk,  and  which  he  could  imaginatively  hand  round  as  little 
specimens  to  be  examined  by  his  class. 

As  he  knew  the  being  of  God,  so  he  held  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
and  naturally ;  for  what  is  composed  of,  will  be  resolved  into,  dust.  But  the 
offspring  of  spirit  will  outlive  this  form  of  flesh.  It  is  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  beyond  any  present  animal  or  vegetable  cases  Darwin  cites. 

This  faith  in  him  was  less  a  scientific  deduction  than  an  instinct,  intuition, 
tradition,  and  consciousness  of  religious  feeling,  although  his  science  contra- 
dicted not,  but  was  consonant  therewith.  He  shared  it  with  Agassiz,  as  Dr. 
Edward  H.  Clarke  told  me,  —  Agassiz,  his  friend  and  intellectual  equal,  with 


59 


whom  he  walked  between  Boston  and  Cambridge,  and  talked  by  the  way. 
He  doubted  not  he  should,  out  of  this  body,  continue  the  studies  which  his 
friend  with  the  microscope  and  himself  with  the  telescope  had  begun ;  and 
Agassiz  was  of  the  same  mind.  He  thought  some  point  in  the  constellation 
Hercules  would  furnish  a  good  and  favorable  post  whence  his  observations 
might  be  carried  on  !  As  one  wants  to  look  around  any  object  of  interest,  to 
behold  a  mountain  on  the  other  side,  or  see  the  interior  of  some  temple  of 
Vesta,  or  Arch  of  Titus  with  the  "golden  candlestick  "  from  Jerusalem  which 
was  the  spoil  of  war,  so  he  coveted  (and  has  he  not  reached  ? )  another  station 
from  which  to  survey  the  stars.  Is  this  not  so  much  a  conclusion  of  logic, 
as  a  sentiment  of  hope  ?  It  is  not,  therefore,  less  stable  and  trustworthy  for 
the  human  soul,  in  which  all  noble  sentiments  are  co-ordinate  powers  with 
the  pure  intellect,  and,  at  least,  of  not  inferior  worth. 

But  I  think  the  pious  confidence  was  born  in  him,  and  came  from  his 
stock,  and  the  strain  of  his  blood.  He  was  a  kinsman,  a  nephew,  of  Ichabod 
Nichols,  whom  he  strongly  resembled, — my  own  minister,  a  true  divine  and 
man  of  genius,  one  like  Coleridge  inspired  in  monologue,  and  of  whom  Jona- 
than Phillips  told  me  that  Channing,  after  listening  to  his  brother  on  a  certain 
occasion,  declared  that  Nichols  was  superior  in  strength  to  himself,  and  he 
could  have  written  no  such  discourse.  It  is  to  Nichols,  more  than  any  one 
out  of  the  house  of  my  own  kith  and  kin,  that  I  am  in  debt  for  the  first  awak- 
ening of  my  mind  to  a  sense  of  its  destiny  in  the  grandeur  of  Christian 
truth  ;  and,  if  I  have  ever  kindled  another  mind  with  the  same  sacred  fire, 
the  flame  was  transmitted  as  from  torch  to  torch  and  headland  to  headland 
in  ancient  Greece.  My  preacher  and  pastor  was  an  enthusiast,  while  a  ra- 
tionalist; and  I  lighted  my  candle  from  his  ever-burning  wick.  It  is  the 
master  in  him  which  the  scholar  feels  is  his  best  gift,  whether  he  paint,  sing, 
play,  or  discourse  ;  for  the  true  master  ends  in  giving  the  scholar  to  himself. 
The  chief  part  of  my  poor  faculty  was  from  my  partaking  my  teacher's  tone 
and  method,  and  my  pleasure  in  this  particular  service  of  to-day  is  enhanced 
by  the  association  of  the  names  of  Peirce  and  Nichols  in  my  own  memory 
and  thought. 

What  a  winsome  and  gracious,  as  well  as  powerful  presence,  like  his 
uncle's,  was  that  of  Benjamin  Peirce  !  The  long  soft  locks  turning  to  iron- 
gray,  the  sweet  and  sober  face,  the  gentle  voice  with  no  harsh  guttural  note, 
the  impressive  brow  in  which  the  causal  and  the  ideal  forces  and  organs  b.oth 
strove  and  both  prevailed,  the  manner  alike  of  loftiness  and  lowliness,  as  of 
one  who  knew  whereof  he  affirmed,  yet  deferred  to  whatever  Wisdom  had  to 


60 


offer  from  any  other  mouth,  —  are  not  these  among  the  traits  of  the  picture 
which  death  has  photographed  in  the  recollection  of  all  his  friends  ?  What 
has  become  of  the  head,  so  subtle  in  its  processes  and  manifold,  so  imagina- 
tive and  so  abstruse,  at  home  with  arithmetical  and  rhetorical  figures  alike, 
that  could  contract  its  scrutiny  to  the  most  minute  and  vanishing  point,  and  yet 
had  room  for  the  broad  revolutions  of  the  skies  ?  What  has  become  of  that  ? 
Is  it  dust  ?  If  so,  then  it  is  dust  that  praises  God  !  Despite  David's  doubt- 
ing inquiry,  sepulchres  are  monuments,  not  only  to  mortals,  but  to  the  Most 
High.  But  the  dweller  has  gone  from  this  slight,  curious,  convoluted,  and 
bone-protected  rotunda  of  a  house,  —  whither,  who  knows  ?  or  why  should  we 
wish  with  detail  of  circumstance  now  to  comprehend  ?  Was  the  abode  made 
for  the  inmate,  or  the  inmate  for  the  abode  ?  Can  the  occupant  not  move 
into  another  mansion,  when,  in  this  clay  hut,  it  has  notice  to  quit  ?  I  refer 
the  question  to  the  Builder,  above  as  below,  if  you  think  by  his  inspiration  he 
has  not  replied. 

Had  the  "  Mecanique  Celeste "  an  author,  and  the  celestial  mechanism 
none  which  gave  its  title  to  the  book  ?  or  shall  the  human  author  perish  while 
the  book  remains  ?  It  were  as  natural  to  think,  that,  while  the  geometry  of 
the  heavens  abides,  the  great  Geometer  is  dead.  If  the  particles  made  me, 
when  they  separate  I  may  not  be.  But,  if  I  draw  or  my  author  wove  them 
for  my  earthly  dress,  finer  particles  may  serve  me  in  another  form  and  state  ; 
and  I  should  as  soon  think  the  atoms  had  made  God  as  that  they  could  fash- 
ion a  human  soul. 

This,  then,  is  the  lesson  of  the  life  and  character  of  the  astronomer  and 
geometrician,  Benjamin  Peirce  :  even  a  faith  we  cannot  demonstrate  or  argue 
into  existence,  as  like  some  American  or  African  river  it  takes  its  rise  in 
distant  lakes  or  mountains  unseen  from  these  lower  plains,  yet  which  cannot 
be  argued  down !  I  therefore  exhort  you  to  revere,  as  he  did,  the  moral 
nature,  your  own  religious  constitution  and  spiritual  frame.  He  believed  in 
the  simple  unity  of  God,  and  enduring  substance  of  the  soul.  But  he  is  too 
great  to  be  claimed  by  any  denomination  or  sect,  and  is  one  of  those  models 
of  humanity  by  which  all  the  heats  of  parties  are  rebuked,  a  member  of  that 
church  which  is  society,  and  has  no  articles  or  forms,  any  more  than  do  the 
angels,  those  pure  flames  of  love.  Let  us  add  his  monument,  his  memory,  to 
that  of  Bowditch,  and  of  all  who  have  been  as  famous  for  virtue  as  for 
knowledge  ;  and,  in  humble  spheres,  let  us  emulate  the  faithfulness  which 
makes  all  deeds  of  equal  worth,  as  the  smallest  vessels  sail  on  the  great 
parallels  of  the  sea. 


6 1 


I  prize  my  witness  ;  for  Benjamin  Peirce  was  a  healthy  mind,  with  no  itch 
of  vanity  or  tumor  of  pride,  although  he  had  that  elevation  of  humility  which 
cannot  be  distinguished  either  from  self-respect  or  a  respect  for  other  men. 
His  bearing  was  that  of  a  noble  among  nobles,  who  do  not  credit  any  thing 
base.  We  sometimes  see  a  personal  beauty,  which  we  think  God  must  mean 
to.  last  forever,  however  hereafter  it  may  be  suited  with  a  different  and  more 
fitting  dress.  How  much  higher  claim  has  beauty  of  disposition  and  thought ; 
and  into  what  loftier  degrees  than  any  sacred  story  ever  recorded  it  may  yet 
rise  !  As  the  thrifty  rice-bird  of  the  South,  bent  on  eating,  is  the  singing 
bobolink  of  the  Northern  spring,  flying  and  chanting  at  once,  let  us  hope  for 
our  nature  a  transformation,  of  which  the  feathered  chorister  is  but  a  type. 


BENJAMIN    PEIRCE:' 

ASTRONOMER,  MATHEMATICIAN. 

1809-1880. 


FOR  him  the  Architect  of  all 
Unroofed  our  planet's  starlit  hall ; 
Through  voids  unknown  to  worlds  unseen 
His  clearer  vision  rose  serene. 

With  us  on  earth  he  walked  by  day, 
His  midnight  path  how  far  away  ! 
We  knew  him  not  so  well  who  knew 
The  patient  eyes  his  soul  looked  through  ; 

For  who  his  untrod  realm  could  share 
Of  us  that  breathe  this  mortal  air, 
Or  camp  in  that  celestial  tent 
Whose  fringes  gild  our  firmament  ? 

How  vast  the  workroom  where  he  brought 
The  viewless  implements  of  thought  ! 
The  wit  how  subtle,  how  profound, 
That  Nature's  tangled  webs  unwound  ; 

That  through  the  clouded  matrix  saw 

The  crystal  planes  of  shaping  law, 

Through  these  the  sovereign  skill  that  planned,  — 

The  Father's  care,  the  Master's  hand  ! 

1  From  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co. 


To  him  the  wandering  stars  revealed 
The  secrets  in  their  cradle  sealed  : 
The  far-off,  frozen  sphere  that  swings 
Through  ether,  zoned  with  lucid  rings  ; 

The  orb  that  rolls  in  dim  eclipse, 
Wide  wheeling  round  its  long  ellipse,  — 
His  name  Urania  writes  with  these, 
And  stamps  it  on  her  Pleiades. 

We  knew  him  not  ?     Ah  !  well  we  knew 
The  manly  soul,  so  brave,  so  true, 
The  cheerful  heart  that  conquered  age, 
The  child-like,  silver-bearded  sage. 

No  more  his  tireless  thought  explores 
The  azure  sea  with  golden  shores  : 
Rest,  wearied  frame  !  the  stars  shall  keep 
A  loving  watch  where  thou  shalt  sleep. 

Farewell  !  the  spirit  needs  must  rise, 
So  long  a  tenant  of  the  skies,  — 
Rise  to  that  home  all  worlds  above 
Whose  sun  is  God,  whose  light  is  love. 

OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. 


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